Friday's recipe is coming a little early this week. I'm heading up north in the morning with my sisters, mom, and grandma for a girls night in Ashton, Idaho. Nothing like a couple of days of hanging out with some of my besties at a cabin on Fall River. We're all in need of a bit of r and r. But I'm not going to leave you for the weekend without setting you up with an idea for dinner this weekend!I love getting my issue of Food Network Magazine every month. March's issue was all about Italian food and I found a whole bunch of delicious dinner ideas, one of which comes from Barilla pasta brand. We made this not knowing what it would taste like. And it truly was a winner! It ended up being relatively light, and to me it tasted like the pasta served with the chicken scaloppini at Carino's but not so saucy. I guess you could say it's a little bit of a copy cat recipe with how similar they are in taste. This recipe will feed the family as an entree. We amade chicken cordon bleu for dinner the other night and also made this pasta in side portions to go with it. It was pretty tasty!
Ingredients
- 1 box Barilla spaghetti
- 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 lb (about 2 c.) pancetta, diced (We couldn't find pancetta so we just used turkey bacon.)
- 1 lb. fresh ripe plum tomatoes, roughly chopped (I bought grape tomatoes and sliced them in half.)
- 1 c. grated Pecorino cheese (Can't find Pecorino in your grocery store? The Italian blend of cheese works great!)
- 2 Tbsp fresh marjoram, chopped (If you can't find fresh marjoram you can buy the marjoram powder or use dried marjoram - 2 tsp)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
- Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions. While the pasta is cooking, put the olive oil in a medium skillet and turn the heat to medium. Add the pancetta (or bacon) and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
- Add tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and simmer for 5 minutes. If using powdered marjoram add it at this point and stir everything together and let it continue to simmer.
- Drain the pasta and toss with the sauce. Stir in the cheese and dried or fresh marjoram before serving.
And that's it! Keep in mind you can make this dish lighter by using wheat pasta and turkey bacon.
**There will be a giveaway next week so stay tuned!**
