Some foods just sound good together. Like peanut butter and jelly. Hamburgers and fries. Two foods that I love independently but are so much better when combined is bacon and spaghetti. In this dish, the bacon and spaghetti work so well together we do not need to add the “and” between them. It’s just bacon spaghetti.
This is a simplified version of pasta carbonara. Whether Bacon Spaghetti was born out of simplicity, laziness, lack of cooking technique or dislike of creamy eggs I do not know. I just know that I love to make it and I especially love to EAT it. We made this tonight as a left over dinner when we could not decide what to eat. We had some cooked pasta in the fridge from veggie and pasta night (subject of an upcoming post) and a half pound of bacon. This was spaghetti rigati which has ridges along its length to enable the renderings to stick the pasta noodle better.
The recipe overall is pretty simple. Cut up bacon into bite size pieces and brown in a skillet until the fat is rendered. Use low heat here. I had a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil near the end. 
Then add the cooked pasta to the same the skillet you cooked the bacon in and toss it around in the bacon fat until the pasta is well coated with the fat and oil. Then just add a pile of freshly grated Parmesan cheese and plenty of fresh ground black pepper and devour it.
The luscious meat juice form the bacon provides the “sauce” for the spaghetti. The Parmesan cheese adds a nutty flavor (plus its cheese!) and the black pepper cuts the greasy taste by adding some bite. Try some bacon spaghetti tonight!
Bacon Spaghetti Ingredients
1lb. Spaghetti Rigati
1lb. Bacon
Shredded Parmesan Cheese
Black Pepper
Bacon Spaghetti Instructions
- Cook the pasta per the box direction or until the desired tenderness
- Cut bacon into about 1/2′ wide pieces with kitchen shears
- Cook bacon low and slow on medium heat to tender out its juices
- Drain pasta
- Add pasta to skillet with cooked bacon
- Toss pasta to coat it with the bacon fat and to mix in the bacon pieces
- Add 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese and toss into pasta
- Serve pasta on plate adding more cheese and freshly ground pepper
