Bacon, homemade with Bundawarrah free range pork middle
Do you know what the best thing about cooking with homemade bacon is? …well, beside the obvious superior flavour and certainty about artificial preservatives? It doesn’t stick to the pan! Because I dry cure my bacon, all the smoky, caramelised goodness stays in the bacon, and doesn’t leach out onto the pan.
It’s amazing what putting a few very good quality ingredients together can do for a meal. A friend of ours sliced up our latest batch of bacon tonight, and I made a simple spaghetti with a couple of rashers of bacon and some kale. It was truly delicious; just what spaghetti should be. The secondary ingredients: a little cream, white wine and parmesan cheese carried the flavours of the bacon and kale through the sauce.
Serves 2
| 200 | grams | spaghetti |
| 1 | teaspoon | olive oil |
| 3 | rashers | good quality bacon |
| 3/4 | cup | kale, finely sliced |
| 1 | tablespoon | white wine |
| 1 | pinch | oregano |
| black pepper | ||
| 1 | tablespoon | pure cream |
| 2-3 | tablespoons | parmesan cheese |
Cook the spaghetti according to packet directions. Drain, reserving a tablespoon of the cooking water.
Spaghetti with bacon and kale
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium sized frying pan. Remove the rind from the bacon and fry in the olive oil to extract all the flavour. Meanwhile chop the bacon into batons. When the rind is crisp, remove it from the pan and discard (or snack on it). Add the bacon to the pan and fry gently until crisp. Add the kale, white wine, oregano, a generous grinding of black pepper, and the cream. Simmer till thickened.
Add the reserved cooking liquid and cooked spaghetti. Mix till thoroughly combined.
Divide between serving bowls. Serve with parmesan cheese.
