Simple Red Sauce with Pasta

  4.2 – 12 reviews  

A tasty, simple sauce that consistently works. A healthy appetite and fresh ingredients are the secret to this meal!

Servings: 4
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  1. 1 (16 ounce) package penne pasta
  2. 6 slices bacon
  3. ½ teaspoon chopped garlic
  4. 1 red onion, chopped
  5. 2 tablespoons olive oil
  6. 3 tomatoes, chopped
  7. 1 green chile peppers, diced
  8. ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  9. 4 leaves fresh basil
  10. 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. In a large pot with boiling salted water cook penne pasta until al dente. Drain well.
  2. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet cook the bacon strips until mostly cooked, but not crisp. Remove from pan, break into bite size pieces. Drain bacon grease from pan. Return cooked bacon to pan, add minced garlic, chopped red onion, olive oil and chili pepper. Saute until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese and fresh basil. Simmer for 10 minutes.
  3. Pour ingredients into a large bowl. Add additional grated Parmesan cheese to top and serve immediately over cooked and drained pasta.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 740 kcal
Carbohydrate 90 g
Cholesterol 40 mg
Dietary Fiber 6 g
Protein 26 g
Saturated Fat 10 g
Sodium 554 mg
Sugars 8 g
Fat 32 g
Unsaturated Fat 0 g

Reviews

Francis Mcclure
I love anything with pasta and bacon. But this really needs a bit more sauce. You must be very careful to turn off the heat and get the sauce on the pasta once you stir in the cheese.
Andrea Vazquez
I tried this recipe but not having penne pasta on hand I substituted egg noodles instead. Didn’t have chile peppers, but had jalepenos and used them. This was a marvelous dish…my husband loved it so much he wanted left overs for his lunch at work the next day. Thank you for sharing!
Stephen Wright
Delicious just the way it’s written.
Wendy Burton
This was different but not bad.
Sylvia Harper
This is very similar to pasta alla amatriciana which is not very common in the U.S. I was taught how to make this by a lady from Rome. The proportion of onions to tomato in a true amatriciana is about 1 tomato per 3 onions, and her recipe called for neither basil nor chili peppers, but did use a sprinkle of nutmeg. Also, you should use the bacon grease to cook in rather than draining it and using the olive oil, for the best flavor (though this recipe as written is healthier than using the bacon grease). As other reviewers have noticed, amatriciana isn’t really a sauce but is clumpy. You can puree it but traditionally it is clumpy. Don’t expect it to taste like a ‘regular’ spaghetti sauce or you will be disappointed – amatriciana is a totally different dish and when done well is quite delightful.
Ronald Andrews
This was AMAZING! I was really pressed for time when I made this for another couple my husband and I had over for dinner. I picked this recipe without giving it much thought so I could at least use my own sauce on what I thought was going to be spaghetti. I’m glad I didn’t read the ingredients more closely, or I would have been afraid to try out something different at the last minute (the name deceived me , thinking it would be a marinara-type sauce). It isn’t very saucy, but I made sure to mix it up well and added a little olive oil to the pasta to coat before I added it. I also cooked up some italian sausage and put that in with it, and it turned out great! Everyone went back for seconds. I will definitely make this again!
Jeffrey Callahan
This is a great recipe, what is HELENA41 going on about! If you prefer a saucier sauce use a tin of crushed tomatoes or an Italian style plain tomato pasta sauce. I used a tin of tomatoes and thyme as the seasoning and it worked brillantly. Just amend to suit your families taste.
Claudia Parsons
This was one of the worst pastas I’ve ever eaten. The sauce wasn’t a sauce but more of a huge clump of bacon/cheese. It tasted like a bad carbonara with tomatoes, and the fat content mixed with the bad flavor will make you feel guilty for a week.
James Soto
Everyone LOVED it! We like our food VERY spicy so I used 2 Jalapenos with the seeds as my peppers and it was excellent!
Brian Waller
This was great. I used thyme (suggested by another reviewer) and a little bit of basil. This really turned out great for a delicious dinner. Thanks for posting.
James Ward
This is an easy, quick and tasty recipe. I used thyme as the seasoning as I find it works really well with the bacon. I served it with spinach & ricotta ravioli & garlic bread – yummy!
Eric Briggs
Great and so simple! Im sure some of you chefs think this is a no brainer but for me and other non-creative people this made me look pro! We all loved it and put it into our monthly rotation! Thanks!

 

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