Recipe: Delicious Pasta (with kale, pine nuts, bacon and parmesan)

This pasta is delicious. Here’s how delicious it is: I love garlic with all my heart and soul. I will put a clove of garlic in anything, just because garlic makes everything better. A friend of mine who is from Northern Italy told me that adding garlic is cheating and is the sign of a lazy cook. In my defense, the same friend also used those disposable aluminum cooking trays as reflectors for suntanning. So, clearly, his opinion is tainted. In any event, my point is: this recipe is so delicious I don’t add garlic.

DELICIOUS
Serves 2. Double for 4.

Ingredients:
4 oz dry whole wheat spaghetti
1/2 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
1/2 oz pine nuts
Kale (I used 3 leaves for 2 people, you can use more if you like), chopped
Olive oil or coconut oil
1 oz Parmesan cheese, shaved
3 rashers bacon, diced (Update: apparently ‘rasher’ is not a word in the US! It means ‘slice’, people! 😉
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Bring salted water to a boil – add the whole wheat spaghetti once it’s boiling, and cook for about 10 minutes (check for done-ness – you want it a little al dente because you’re going to cook it in a saute pan with the other ingredients as well).
Put a small non-stick fry pan on a low heat, with olive oil or coconut oil. Add the pine nuts. These brown quickly – make sure it’s on low heat, and keep stirring. As soon as you see the color changing to golden brown, remove from heat and drain on a paper towel.

Cook bacon in a large saute pan. (If you are vegetarian and want to skip the bacon, just start to heat olive or coconut oil at this stage – otherwise the bacon provides its own fat for cooking). Add the kale, and saute. Then add a dash of water to continue cooking the kale without it burning. Next, add the halved tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste. When the spaghetti is al dente, drain, and add to the saute pan. Reduce heat to very low, add pine nuts, and stir to combine.

Serve with shaved Parmesan. Enjoy. It’s really delicious.

Toasted pine nuts

Halved cherry tomatoes and chopped kale

The bitter part of kale is the thick, light-colored stem. Remove with a knife before chopping the leaves up.

I use an oz of parmesan for two people and it is decandent.