Pasta with Bacon, Olives and Tomato Sauce

Name: Pasta with Bacon, Olives and Tomato Sauce Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Italian cuisine
Ingredients: Fusilli pasta 200 g; Water for the pasta 2 l; Salt for the pasta water 10 g; Bacon, pancetta or smoked meat 150 g; Tomato 2 (or 200 g canned tomato flesh); Garlic 1 clove; Pitted black olives 12-15; Olive oil 3 tbsp; Sugar 1 tsp (5 g); Salt, ground black pepper, dried Mediterranean herbs to taste; Basil or parsley a few leaves for serving

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30 mins

It’s a pity that for many people the words village and countryside are an empty sound, no more than words like “maybe there will be a little rain tonight”. But think about it: the countryside is sun, fresh air, milk, home cooking, cured fat, and other simple, tasty food. How can you forget childhood summers, when after running around with friends since early morning you drank a mug of fresh milk and sat at the family table for form’s sake, while in your mind you were already racing off with your friends to swim in the river. I remember there was no store-bought sausage, canned food, “ready-made” salads or hateful fast food in the village.

The food was simple and unpretentious, cooked right before the meal and never left for later. From the store we bought only grains, rye bread, butter and salt. No special delicacies, no frills, no “bells and whistles”. Boiled new potatoes with sour cream and dill, fresh bread, a vegetable salad: the perfect summer meal in the village. Very simple recipes, everything from the garden, and a lot of good feelings.

Now in Europe, and here too, “green tourism” is gaining popularity: trips to stay in the countryside, at your own expense. People know what they are spending their money on.

Pasta with bacon or smoked meat is a simple country dish that would be right at home in rural Italy and could even grace a restaurant menu. It is an easy recipe: pasta with ham, pasta with bacon, pancetta or country-style smoked meat, with olives and tomatoes added.

More with bacon and pasta

Amatriciana: Meat Sauce for Pasta with Fried Pork

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Pasta with Pancetta, Paprika and Parmesan

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Pasta Carbonara

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Spaghetti with Pork Belly

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More bacon recipes

Ingredients

2 servings

Fusilli pasta 200 g
Water for the pasta 2 l
Salt for the pasta water 10 g
Bacon, pancetta or smoked meat 150 g
Tomato 2 (or 200 g canned tomato flesh)
Garlic 1 clove
Pitted black olives 12-15
Olive oil 3 tbsp
Sugar 1 tsp (5 g)
Salt, ground black pepper, dried Mediterranean herbs to taste
Basil or parsley a few leaves for serving

Step-by-step recipe

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Pasta

Fusilli is a short shaped pasta. It is made from durum wheat and looks like little spirals. The name comes from the word “fuso”, a spindle for spinning. Fusilli are usually 5-7 cm long. They are often colored by adding various vegetable ingredients to the dough: spinach, carrot, beet, egg and so on. Fusilli have a unique property: thanks to their complex shape, this pasta holds sauce on its surface superbly. That matters, since pasta with bacon has a tomato sauce that is not the thickest.
Bring 2 l of water to a boil and add 10 g of salt. The ideal proportions for cooking pasta: 1:10 pasta to water, and 5 g of salt per 1 l of water.
Add the fusilli to the boiling water and cook until “al dente”, “to the tooth”: the pasta should be cooked so that there is still a barely noticeable firmness inside. While the pasta cooks, make the sauce.

Bacon sauce

For the sauce you can use any lightly smoked meat, so the pasta with bacon is fragrant and has a smoky taste. Smoked bacon or pork belly, Italian pancetta, smoked loin, or thinly sliced smoked meat streaked with fat all work well. What matters is not so much the meat as the smoky flavor and aroma.
Cut the meat you chose into thin slices.
Pour 3 tbsp of olive oil into a frying pan and fry the meat slices. Fry over high heat, stirring constantly, for up to 2 mins.
As soon as the bacon or smoked meat starts to turn a little golden, add the pitted black olives. If the olives are large, you can cut them in half.
Scald the tomatoes with boiling water and remove the skin and seeds. Cut the tomato flesh into small pieces.
If you don’t have fresh ripe tomatoes, you can use half a can (200 g) of canned tomato flesh. By the way, pasta with bacon tastes best with fresh, very ripe tomatoes.
Blend the tomato flesh, a peeled garlic clove, 1 tsp of sugar (5 g), and salt, black pepper and dried Mediterranean herbs to taste into a purée.
Pour the tomato purée over the fried meat and olives. Stir gently.
Simmer the sauce over medium heat, covered, for 10 mins.
Remove the lid and keep simmering the tomato sauce with smoked meat to the consistency you like. Fusilli holds sauce superbly even when it is very thin, but I prefer a sauce as thick as good sour cream. Then the pasta with bacon tastes best and doesn’t look like soup.

Serving

By this time the pasta should be cooked. Drain it in a colander and let the water run off.
Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce.
Put the pasta on plates and garnish with basil or parsley leaves.
Pasta with bacon or smoked meat makes a tasty breakfast.