Directions
One of the easiest and most delicious first courses to do in autumn is pasta with Treviso red radicchio and smoked bacon, a super classic comfort food. Bacon and Treviso radicchio are the perfect duo, one of those symphonies of incredible flavor and aromas, where the smoked bacon fattiness finds relief in the gentle bitter hug of red radicchio.
If you feel hungry you can season the pasta with 50 grams of sweet Gorgonzola, to make the dish more creamy and enveloping, but also tremendously caloric.
As the only suggestion to make this delicious pasta with radicchio and smoked bacon, we suggest the use of shallots to make a quick sauce. In this way, its aromatic delicacy will make the dish more nuanced, without suffocating the suggestive charm of radicchio with too intense flavors.
Ingredients and doses for making pasta with Treviso radicchio and smoked bacon
6 servings
- 550 grams of short pasta like rigatoni or penne
- 600 grams of Treviso red radicchio
- 30 grams of butter or 4 spoons of EVO
- 1 shallot
- 100 grams of smoked bacon
- 40 grams of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- a pinch of nutmeg
- double pinch of salt and pepper
How to make pasta with Treviso radicchio and smoked bacon
Cut the bacon into small slices, so that they can brown and become crunchy. Cook in a pan for 10 minutes, until it is well browned. Drain the pancetta and place it on a plate.
Melt the butter in the pan with the fat of the bacon, then throw in the finely chopped shallot and cook for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, wash well and cut the Treviso red radicchio into strips, then toss it in the pan with the shallot, season with salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg and let it cook for 7-8 minutes. You don’t have to cook it too much, it is better if it remains crispier. Add the bacon, stir and then turn off.
Cook the pasta al dente and in the meantime add a ladle of the cooking water to the radicchio and emulsify, over moderate heat, to make a slightly more liquid sauce. Drain the pasta, toss it in the pan with the radicchio and bacon, add Parmigiano Reggiano and stir quickly. In this way, you will make a fatty creamy sauce with the starch, so it is not necessary to use cream or additional butter, which would flatten delicate, but tasty, the balance of this dish, so rich in contrasts.
If you want a lighter dish use extra virgin olive oil instead of butter. If on the contrary, you feel extremely greedy, add 40 grams of Gorgonzola cheese and stir to melt it with the heat of the pasta.
