Pasta with bacon and peas
Little pasta shells that catch sweet peas and crispy bacon in a buttery parmesan sauce, a cheap dinner from the freezer and pantry.
- 25 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $1.73 a serving
- 680 calories
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 6 slices bacon
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 12 oz medium pasta shells
- 1½ cups frozen peas
- 2 tbsp butter
- ¾ cup grated parmesan
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp salt, for the pasta water
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 680 calories, 24 g protein, 74 g carbs and 31 g fat, and costs about $1.73 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No frozen peas? Frozen mixed vegetables work.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Fill a large pot with water, add the salt, cover, and bring it .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cut the bacon into ½-inch pieces and the garlic.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Cook the bacon in a large over medium for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until . Turn off the heat, stir in the garlic, and let it sizzle in the hot fat.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Crispy. Crispy means the outside is dry, firm and crunchy. It comes from high heat, a little oil and room in the pan, because crowded food steams and goes soft.
How you’ll know: It sounds crunchy when you tap or bite it, and it doesn’t flop when you lift it.
Medium heatTimer: 9 min
Food safety: Cook bacon until it’s crisp and no longer translucent.
Cook the shells in the boiling water as the package says, adding the peas for the last 2 minutes.
High heatTimer: 9 min
Scoop out a mug of , then the shells and peas.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Tip the pasta into the skillet with the bacon, butter, parmesan and ½ cup pasta water, and over low heat for 1 to 2 minutes, until a creamy sauce coats every shell.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Low heatTimer: 2 min
Dolly’s tip: The starchy pasta water melts the cheese into a sauce. Add more a splash at a time if it tightens up.with plenty of black pepper and serve right away.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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30-minute dinners ›Pantry dinners ›What to make with frozen peas and parmesan ›