Pasta Playtime

I like messing around in the kitchen. Sometimes the urge to just get playful with ingredients hits. It hit tonight. I was gonna buy fish, but didn't know where on Commercial sold what I wanted, and it was too late to hit up the fishmongers on Granville Island, so I opted to make pasta as soon as I saw the gorgeous bunches of fresh local basil available.

This is what I made, and I don't have a brilliant name for it. It's a cream sauce with some funky additions. It's basically what Alfredo would be if it had any fucking personality at all.

Saute enough back bacon for two. (What we Canadians call so-called "Canadian" bacon. Duh.)
Set it aside.

While the bacon's sauteeing, you want to score a couple nice, ripe tomatoes and blanch them for 30 seconds in boiling water and then remove the skins and the seeds. Chop roughly.
Set tomatoes aside.

Saute a couple cloves of garlic and some shallot (I used a large whole one) in some olive oil.

When garlic & shallots are starting to caramelize, toss in the tomatoes and add about 1/4 cup of chopped marinated artichoke hearts, and cook for a couple minutes.

Grate yourself 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, and get a half cup of cream. Mix this. Add it to the cooked tomatoes, toss in the bacon, and let it get happy-happy for a couple minutes over medium-low heat.

Add about 1/2 cup of chopped basil, a little salt, and lotsa pepper. Give it a good mix, then add enough pasta for two folks.* Make sure the pasta's not completely cooked (a little less than al dente) so it can absorb the sauce. Allow it to mingle there for a couple minutes, and then serve it out.

If I had wine, I might have added 1/4 cup of chardonnay or something when the tomatoes were cooking. But I didn't. Sad, sad.

Serve it up with garlic bread, or with baguette and balsamic/olive oil dip.

Personally, I thought it fucking rocked. :)

*I'm ignorant as to what pasta you use with chunky sauces. I'm sorta dyslexic about these things and can never, ever remember. I use what I have. Tonight it was fresh linguine.