Rigatoni with Bacon and Asparagus

 

Every month I get so excited for The Secret Recipe Club assignments. The SRC is an awesome group of foodies/recipe lovers, who are assigned a different blog each month. You keep the blog a secret until reveal day. You choose a recipe from the blog to create during the month and then reveal which blog you had and which recipe you chose on a certain date each month. My posting date for my group this month is actually the 22nd.

I got an email today, requesting a volunteer to take a second blog, and I jumped at the chance. As ridiculous as it sounds, I’d do this every week if I could.  Someone dropped out and there was an emergency need for someone to prepare something from this blog. When I clicked on the link to get to the blog, I was SO excited. Recipe after recipe of the exact types of food I feed my family. It was VERY hard to choose something, she had so many delicious recipes for the making. But alas, I chose the Rigatoni with Bacon and Asparagus, because I knew my kids would love it, and I’m going through an Asparagus kick much the same way she mentions going through. And hello? Did you see – it has BACON!

My emergency blog for Group A is: Connor’s Cooking

A special little thank you to Amanda, for hosting such an amazing club, getting together such a great group of food lovers and for allowing me to cook off Connor’s Cooking blog this month, because I think I will be a long time follower!

Rigatoni with Bacon and Asparagus

(recipe found in Taste of Home Healthy Cooking – I am a HUGE TOH fan!)

• 1 package rigatoni or large tube pasta
• 1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and coarsely chopped
• 8 bacon strips
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2/3 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley

This whole thing came together for me in about 20 minutes or so.

Boil your water.

Follow package directions for cooking Rigatoni.

Drain Pasta.

 

In a dutch oven, bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add asparagus; cover and boil for 3 minutes.

 

Drain and immediately place asparagus in ice water. Drain and pat dry. Chop into small pieces. Set aside.

In same pan, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp.

Remove the bacon to paper towels to drain. Crumble bacon and set aside.

 

Saute garlic in butter and oil until tender. Stir in the cream. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered for 3-4 minutes or until slightly thickened.

 

Stir in mozzarella until melted. Drain rigatoni; add to pan. Stir in the salt, asparagus and reserved bacon.

 

Sprinkle with parmigiano-reggiano cheese and parsley.

 

Eat & Enjoy! The only thing I changed is that we substituted Oregano for the Parsley. This was absolutely DELICIOUS!!!!