When we cook pasta aglio e olio at home, we serve it either as a side dish or a main dish. If it’s meatless, it’s a side dish. But for a filling main dish, we like to add meat.
Cook’s notes
Crumbled sausage meat is always good with pasta. So is bacon. Add both to pasta and you have a winner.
Hungarian sausage meat is used in this recipe but feel free to substitute the meat from other sausage variety. Sausage meat with lots of spices is ideal. Spanish chorizo or andouille are both good choices.
Unlike traditional pasta aglio e olio where the only oil is olive oil, in this recipe, the oil is a mixture of olive oil and the fat rendered from the bacon and sausage meat. You have the option, of course, of discarding the rendered fat. But you lose a lot of flavor if you do.
Spaghetti aglio e olio with bacon and Hungarian sausage
Ingredients
- 120 grams spaghetti (about ¼ pound) or your preferred pasta shape
- 50 grams thinly sliced bacon (about 1.75 ounces) cut into strips
- 50 grams Hungarian sausage (about 1.75 ounces) or other spicy sausage, meat crumbled and skin discarded
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 4 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes
- juice of half a lemon
- salt to taste
- 1 small handful roughly chopped parsley
- 1 small handful finely sliced basil
- grated Parmesan cheese optional
Instructions
- Cook the spaghetti in about two liters of water with a tablepoon and a half of salt until al dente.
- While the pasta cooks, heat a frying pan.
- Add the bacon and crumbled sausage meat and cook over medium-high heat until lightly browned.
- Scoop out the meat with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate or shallow bowl.
- Pour the olive oil into the pan.
- Over medium heat, cook the garlic until lightly browned.
- Add the sun-dried tomatoes and cook, stirring, for another 30 seconds.
- Return the bacon and sausage meat to the pan and cook for a few seconds longer until the meats are heated through. Turn off the heat.
- Drain the pasta, add to the meat and toss.
- Pour in the lemon juice. Toss some more.
- Add the parsley and basil, and toss again.
- Taste the pasta. If it needs more salt, add more salt.
- Divide the spaghetti aglio e olio with bacon and Hungarian sausage between among three bowls.
- Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if using, and serve.
Fettuccine aglio e olio with mussels