Pasta Three Ways

Today I thought I would share with you my three favourite three sauces for pasta, including a creamy bacon sauce, my mum's bolognese and what I use when I'm being lazy! I love pasta. It's so versatile and you can do so much to it. You can make a really yummy sauce for it or even just sprinkle some Parmigiano-Reggiano on to some plain pasta for a quick and simple meal.

Creamy Bacon SauceThe first of my sauces is my take on a carbonara, I don't use eggs in my sauce which is what makes it different from a traditional carbonara sauce. With this recipe you can change it around depending on how much bacon,cream and cheese you like in it. I use 2 bacon rashers each and a small pot of cream for 3-4 people.

Bacon
Cream
Half a red onion
Half a tsp of garlic
Parmigiano-Reggiano

1. Fry some bacon in a pan until nice and crispy.
2. To the bacon add half a teaspoon of garlic and half of a red onion diced, cook until softened and slightly browned.
3. Add the cream to the mixture and heat on a low temperature, making sure not too boil the cream.
4. Stir in four tablespoons of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. When the pasta is cooked, add it to the sauce in the pan along with a little of the starchy water to loosen the sauce.
6. Once the sauce has been fully mixed into the pasta, serve with another little sprinkling of parmesan.

Bolognese
Bolognese is a much loved dish by many and everyone makes it in their own different ways. It's one of my favourite dishes, I don't think I've ever tried two the same, even the ones I make always seem to vary a little. Apart from my mums Sunday roast her bolognese is my next favourite dinner and very hard to beat in my eyes. It's very different from the ones you get in restaurants or abroad, it's richer, beefier and so yummy.

500g Extra lean beef mince
1 White onion diced
1 Red Onion diced
2 Beef OXO cubes
2 Tins of chopped tomatoes
About 10 Mushrooms diced
2 Tsp of italian herbs
Worcester Sauce
Red Wine

1. In a pan lightly brown the mince along with the diced onions.
2. Add two crumbled oxo cubes along with the mushrooms and cook on a medium heat until softened.
3. Then add the two tins of chopped tomatoes, italian herbs, a dash of worcestershire sauce and a generous splash of red wine.
4. I find that the longer you cook it the better, I would recommend leaving it on a low for a good few hours, just gently bubbling away.  
5. We sometimes double up on the recipe so we can eat half and freeze half so that we have a delicious dinner which is already prepared for whenever we fancy it.

...and for when I'm feeling lazy or in a rush and haven't got any of the bolognese already prepared in the freezer there is a sauce from Dolmio which I love.

Stir-in sauce for your favourite pasta, a lovely smokey tomato sauce with bacon bits.
Quick, Easy and Tasty. Enjoy.
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