RECIPE: Basic Pasta, and Blackened Pasta.

Here are the two basic ways we have pasta quick-and-easy at our place.

Basic Pasta #1: Classic oil & garlic method.

Boil pasta per usual method.  (We've found 1 cup of dry pasta will
feed 2 people, 3 if they're light eaters.)

While pasta is boiling, prepare serving bowl -- regular mixing bowl
will do -- by putting in the bowl an appropriate amount of
     olive oil
     garlic (I use granulated garlic)
     basil
     oregano
     parsley
     and whatever other italian spices you want to throw in.

When the pasta is ready, drain it and mix in the serving bowl; serve
and garnish with parmesan (or parmesan-romano mix) cheese.

Basic Pasta #2: Fancy version. You should have three burners free on
your stove.

Put the water on to boil.  Add a little salt.
Add olive oil if that's what you like to do.
*Meanwhile* also put on a skillet or frypan and fry up some bacon.
If you're cooking for 2, one pan-full should be enough; otherwise
you'll need to cook two batches.  The object is to get the bacon
crisp, i.e. just before it burns. :)

When the water is boiling, put in your pasta.  The bow-ties are
nice, by the way, because they're easy to spear with the fork when
you serve them.
*Meanwhile* put on a small pan on a low heat. Heat up some olive
oil, about 1 TB per person or so. When the olive oil is hot, add
the same amount of butter (1 TB per person or so) and melt the butter.
Add in garlic, black pepper, and basil.  (Or your own choice.)

Drain the pasta when it's ready.  The bacon should be crisp; drain
it and crumble it.  The sauce should also be ready.
If you're feeding a lot of people, reserve some of the pasta water
when you drain it (a 1/4 cup, maybe) to add to the sauce.  (I
don't do this myself, because with our small family it just makes
the sauce too thin. But my mom told me to do it, so I'm telling you.)

Toss the pasta, sauce, and crumbled bacon bits together; serve
with parmesan.

[I haven't figured out the trick to not scorching the sauce, so
it tends to come out dark brown; hence the term, Blackened Pasta.]

March 1994

Hazel Boston-Baden, P.O. Box 17522, Anaheim CA 92817.
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