Looking for dinner ideas? Cavatappi with Bacon and Roasted Broccoli. Quick, flavorful and so easy to make! We hope you give this recipe a try!
I am slowly starting to see more pasta and tomato sauce stocked on grocery store shelves. It’s a great thing to see. Grocery store shelves being stocked and more pantry staples made available. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s still a shortage of certain things but we just need to hang in there. With pasta, initially there was nothing. One day, when I was shopping, all of the pasta was wiped out and gone except for a few boxes of De Cecco pasta.
De Cecco, if you’ve never heard of it, is really delicious pasta, made in Italy. It’s more expensive and so, for that reason alone, I usually buy Barilla. But again, when I went to the grocery store, there was nothing else on the shelves except this and another box of De Cecco penne so I purchased both. I’m really glad that I I did because I usually stick to penne, elbow, linguine and spaghetti so it was nice to try a new pasta.
As we move into the month of April and adjust to our new lives and grocery shopping, I wanted to create dinner ideas, specifically an easy pasta recipe not using tomato sauce or canned tomatoes. Most of us I believe are shopping, or online shopping, once a week or once every few weeks. We’re running out of things and I wanted to show you guys how to be more resourceful with what you have. I just ran out of canned tomatoes and tomato sauce so wanted to show you guys how to easily create a pasta dish without those items.
This Cavatappi with Bacon and Roasted Broccoli dish comes together quickly and I used what I had in my pantry and in my refrigerator. Did you know you can create a pasta sauce using a fat (in this case from the bacon fat), olive oil, onions and garlic, herbs, chicken stock (or white wine) and more.
It’s pretty simple and comes together quickly! I hope you give this simple dinner recipe a try. Here is a recipe list of my other favorite pasta recipes for dinner.
Cavatappi with Bacon and Roasted Broccoli
Ingredients
- 1 pound Cavatappi or any pasta
- 2 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin; split
- 1 small head of broccoli cut into bite sized florets
- kosher salt and pepper
- 6 to 8 slices thick cut bacon cut into small chunks or cubes
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
- parmesan cheese freshly grated for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat and cook pasta to al dente. When finished, reserve one cup of the pasta water. Drain the rest and set the pasta aside.
- Arrange the broccoli florets on a lined baking sheet and drizzle with one tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 15 to 18 minutes.
- Using a large sauté pan or skillet, heat the bacon pieces over medium high heat and cook until browned and crispy. When finished, remove from the pan and onto a paper towel lined plate.
- Without wiping out the pan, add in the onions and cook for a few minutes or until tender. Add the garlic and cook for a minute longer. Season with the dried oregano and mix together. Add in the chicken stock and stir together, mixing up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan and cook for about 4 or 5 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced a bit.
- Add in the cooked pasta, the bacon and the roasted broccoli and mix together until all of the pasta is coated with the sauce. Add some of the reserved pasta water if you need it to loosen the pasta and create more sauce. Season with the red chili pepper flakes and drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and toss together one more time. To serve: garnish with freshly grated parmesan cheese and enjoy!
