penne with mushroom-tomato-cream sauce

have you ever looked for a sneaky way to incorporate veggies into something delicious?

have you ever looked for a delicious side that has veggies in it for an italian meal?

have you ever looked for an easy main pasta dish but bored with spaghetti?

look. no. further.

ingredients:
8 ounces penne pasta
4 strips bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
8 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 can Muir Glen organic crushed tomatoes with basil, undrained
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cups packed fresh baby spinach leaves

NOTE 1:
i couldn't find "muir glen organic crushed tomatoes with basil". i could, however, find muir glen organic crushed tomatoes. i just added my own basil.

NOTE 2:
i have NO CLUE what crimini mushrooms are. if someone can help me out on this, please do. i just used green giant sliced mushrooms in a 6 ounce jar and drained them.

NOTE 3:
i LOVE heavy whipping cream. next time i make this, i will increase it from 1/2 cup to a whole cup. also because, for us, it makes lots of leftovers, and, believe it or not, this tastes AMAZING the next day. but it dries out in the fridge and needs a little extra whipping cream to make the leftovers go from great to "oh my gosh".

NOTE 4:
i recommend topping this with grated parmesan. i just don't really believe in italian pasta without any cheese. it just isn't right. whatever cheese you decide to go with (unless you're strange and don't go with any), make sure it is grated or shredded super fine. you don't want it to overwhelm the taste of the pasta.

NOTE 5:
i used turkey bacon. but that's just a personal preference. and i made extra bacon... more on that later...

onto the directions!

first, cook and drain pasta as directed on box. return to saucepan, keep warm.

meanwhile, in 12-inch skillet or dutch oven, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp.

remove bacon to paper towels to drain.

cook garlic and mushrooms in oil 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are tender. (be careful. they splatter. figured that out the hard way. ouch. doesn't matter. the final result was still worth it.)

stir in tomatoes. heat to boiling. reduce heat. simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

remember that bacon? crumble it up into pieces.

while you're in the process of crumbling it up, i dare you not to sneak a piece. (i made extra specifically for this purpose. mwahahahahahaha!)

stir in whipping cream. heat just until hot. then add pasta.

then add spinach.

toss until spinach is wilted. (almost done!)

directions say to sprinkle individual servings with bacon, but i sprinkled it over the whole thing. as i mentioned before, i also topped with parmesan cheese.

so, seriously... how can a recipe that has bacon in it be bad? put simply, it can't. i will make this again and again! hope you enjoy!

fin.


EDIT: i can't believe i didn't think of this earlier, but i just had this for leftovers and topped it with feta. AH-MAZING!! do it! do it!