Bacon. Every dinner should start with bacon. And then you add garlic and you really have a winner. Unfortunately, our Mom thinks bacon should be a special treat, mostly because she hates cooking it due to the mess it makes on her stove. Not to mention that there is some debate over how healthy it is in large quantities. But when we saw this pasta recipe, she agreed that we should try to make this simple bacon garlic pasta for kids.
Bacon Makes Dinner Better:
We started off with a full package of bacon. We say if you are going to make it, then make a lot as there is no chance in our house that it won’t get eaten. The main question was whether there would be any left to add to the pasta. Once the aroma of bacon cooking fills our house, we seriously have to guard it from being snatched.
While we cooked the bacon, we started peeling the garlic. I just could not get over how pretty the color and pattern were on this garlic!
Reserving Pasta Water and Grease:
This recipe calls for reserving the pasta water, but we were not exactly sure how to do this. We decided to dip our measuring cup into the water to pull it out.
After our bacon was cooked, we were left with a lot of grease. I mean, a lot. This recipe said to just keep it all in the pan and add the garlic. But sometimes you need to make your own judgment call and change a recipe based on your gut. When I asked Mom what she thought, she carefully poured the grease into a measuring cup.
Yikes, in our opinion, that was just too much. We ended up using about 1/4 cup of the grease and added that back into our pan. Next we added our garlic, a 1/2 cup of pasta water, and our pasta, then crumbled our bacon into pieces into the mixture.
Should Kids Make Simple Bacon Garlic
Absolutely. We loved the taste and felt that we made the right decision in lowering the amount of grease, as it had enough flavor. We also worried that it would be very strong with the amount of garlic that we added, but it turned out to be just right. While not our favorite Mac and Cheese, we will be adding this recipe to our menu again.
Simple Bacon Garlic Pasta for Kids to Make
This simple bacon garlic pasta for kids starts with bacon. Every dinner should start with bacon. And then you add some garlic and you really have a winner.
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Salt
- 1 Pound Dried Spaghetti
- 12 Ounce Package of Bacon
- 6 Large Garlic Cloves
- Chopped Fresh Parsley or Cilantro for Garnish
- Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then add the salt and cook the pasta for 1 minute less than the packet suggests.
- Once the pasta is cooked reserve 2 ½ cups of the pasta cooking water and then drain the pasta.
- Cook bacon in a large frying pan. When crispy, remove and drain on paper towel. Reserve ¼ cup of bacon grease in the pan.
- Reduce the heat under the pan and add crushed garlic. Stir constantly for 2 minutes and as soon as the garlic has softened but not yet colored, add ½ cup of the pasta cooking water and turn the heat back up.
- Boil this mixture for a minute then add in the now drained pasta, keeping the frying pan on the heat.
- Add a further ½ cup of pasta water and stir the pasta in the sauce until it is cooked to your liking. Add more pasta water if desired.
- Crumble bacon as you add it to the pasta. Add salt and pepper if desired.
- Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and parsley/cilantro.
Notes
Adapted from Sprinkle and Sprouts