An easy pasta dish with
lots of flavour. You can use the pasta of your choice: penne, or shells,
macaroni or fusilli. It even works on spaghetti. But make sure you use good
Italian pasta. Try not to overcook the broccoli or it will go a nasty grey. It,
too, should be a bit al dente. If you leave off the bacon, it will be suitable
for vegetarians. The pasta we used was fusillata, the pasta which is supposed
to hold the most sauce
200g pasta - 250g
small broccoli florets - 2 Tbsp olive oil – 6 pieces of streaky bacon cut into
3 cm slices - a good handful of lightly chopped walnuts – 1 clove of garlic,
sliced thin - 100g creamy blue cheese, gorgonzola, dolce latte, nothing too
strong, cut into small cubes - zest of one lemon – juice of half a lemon –
freshly ground black pepper
Cook the pasta in well salted water until al dente; Heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan and fry the bacon till crisp; remove and keep
aside. Add the walnuts to the pan and fry gently for one minute; add them to
the bacon. When the pasta is nearly ready, steam the broccoli for 2 minutes. Add
the rest of the oil to the pan and fry the garlic for a few seconds till soft. Do
not discard the pasta water. Take the pasta out with a slotted spoon and stir
it into the oil with the broccoli, the bacon, the walnuts and the lemon zest.
Then add the blue cheese. Moisten the dish with a tablespoon or two of the
pasta water, and stir until the cheese begins to melt. Squeeze over the juice
of half a lemon and serve immediately. Serves 4
This is a fairly robust dish because of the blue cheese,
which can have a slightly metallic note. We think that a Viognier, unwooded or
very lightly wooded, makes the perfect companion wine. Its notes of peaches,
citrus and slight sweetness are the perfect foil. We had it with Saronsberg’s
excellent Viognier. It’s a dry wine with a slight fruity sweetness, which is
exactly what this dish called out for, and its fresh acidity cleans the palate.
It is our Wine of the Week
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2018
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