It was one of those lazy afternoon when I saw the commercial for KFC's new Creamy Tomato Pasta bowl and I knew right there and then that I have to try it. Fair enough, it is affordable and it does taste good, but you'll know that it could be better. And that inspired me to cook my own version of it.
Pasta in Tomato and Cream Sauce is one of the easiest Pasta Dish that you can cook. This pasta allows you to experiment as to what other ingredients you can add. As for me, I use Mushroom and Bacon. Mushroom for an extra juicy texture and Bacon, because we all know that everything taste good with bacon.
Bacon and Mushroom Pasta in Tomato and Cream SauceThe ingredients are simple.
Pasta of your choice (spaghetti, linguini, or penne)
Sauce:
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 Medium Size White Onion Chopped
3 cups Tomato sauce
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
Dried Italian Seasoning
Toppings:
2 Tbsp butter
6 strips of bacon cut into 1 inch strips
1 cup sliced mushroom
Dried Italian Seasoning
Grated Cheese
Normally, you can just heat the tomato sauce and the heavy cream in a pan then it's good to go, but for added taste, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil before adding the tomato sauce and cream. Add dried Italian Seasoning.
For the toppings, sauté onion, garlic, mushroom and bacon in a butter. Set aside.
Cook the pasta based on the instruction indicated on the pack, then once cooked, pour the sauce, top it with sauté mushroom and bacon, and then add grated cheese.
You can then serve it with toasted garlic bread and/or a glass of wine.
Foodie Notes:
Since I didn't use stock on the sauce, the consistency is thick and creamy, meaning depending on your desired thickness, you can always adjust it by adding meat broth to the sauce while cooking.
If you do not have fresh herbs and spices for your pasta, a bottled Dried Italian seasoning you can purchase in the grocery store will do wonders on the dish.
Tossing the pasta in the sauce right after cooking it will make a big difference in flavor instead of waiting for it to cool down before mixing the two.
Note that tomato is already high in acidity, so if you are using a tomato based sauce in your pasta, the wine you should choose to pair with it must have enough acidity on it so that it wouldn't clash with the tomato. While Cream-based sauce goes well with full-bodied white wine. Most wine you can purchase indicates at the back label as to which dish it goes well.
"Kiddie-fying" The Dish
Most kids and for some who are kids-at-heart especially for Filipinos like us, they prefer a sweeter version of pasta. That is why there are already available different brands of pasta and tomato sauce in the market which targets the palates of kids, making the sauce sweeter than usual.
To make this recipe more suitable to kids, you can just add sugar to the sauce, not too much though, or you can opt to use the Filipino Style tomato sauce available in the local market. Then, aside from bacon and mushroom, you can also use hotdogs which kids love.
Also, kids love texture on their food. Most of my younger cousins love hotdogs on their pasta, and the next the great thing for them are cheese. Whenever they are served with pasta, they would always ask for more cheese. So, instead of grating the cheese, diced bits and pieces of it also works well.
