Crispy bacon pepper pasta

the bacon, it’s sticky + crispy. the sauce, it’s creamy and saucy + delicious.

If you’ve leftover duck or chicken fat here, use it instead of the oil. I use these when I have them sitting in the fridge because they add so much more flavour. You’ve probably got a pack of streaky bacon in the freezer that you could use for this, let's be honest, we’re irish and still are living as if there’s a famine and hoarding food in our freezers in case the bloody blight gets us again. But, the bacon,It’ll do and bet you’re glad you have it now. It wont take that long to defrost either. 

I had orecchiette so I used it here, also in love with how the pepper pools form in the little pasta ears. But if you’ve penne, use it, spaghetti, why the hell now. Fresh pasta, even bloody better 

Also do NOT use powdered or pre crushed black pepper here. It’ll be god damn awful. If you have whole black peppercorns and are wondering how you’re going to crush them, pop them in a pestle + mortar or else onto a chopping board and chop them until fine-ish. 

Enough for: 2 

Takes: 20minutes to cook 

1 x 250g pack streaky bacon, sliced 

200g orecchiette 

2 tbsp maple syrup 

25g butter, diced 

1.5 tsp crushed black pepper 

100ml milk 

50g Parmesan, finely grated 

Put the oil in a pan over a medium heat. Stir the bacon into the oil. Let this go crispy, single layer for these bacon slivers please. 

Bring a pot of water to the boil over a high heat, salt it, add the pasta. Cook to whatever the pack says. 

Add the maple to the bacon and let this coat it and caramelise a little. Stir through the pepper and scoop the bacon out to a bowl. Stir the butter into the leftover bits in the pan it’ll instantly melt. Slowly stir the milk into this and let it reduce for about a minute before stirring through the parmesan. Scoop the pasta across and into the pan using a slotted spoon. Stir through to coat in the sauce. Season with salt if it needs it. 

Scoop the pasta into bowls and top with the crispy bacon.