Bread and Pasta

I see it's been a bit since my last post.  The garden has been taking time since I had to pull the beets and carrots and tend to the tomatoes, peppers, and other early plants.  The lettuce and spinach are no more as the heat made them bolt.  That's OK though because the zucchini is coming in so we have zucchini noodles for our fast day meals.  I now have to till the area where I've pulled stuff up and get it ready for peas and beans.

Lately, I've been making all our pasta but we didn't throw out the ready made stuff.  In an effort to free up space for jars of canned vegetables I finished up a bag of pasta we bought from the hippie store some time back.  The hippie store is Organic Food Depot and they have good prices on bulk grains and lentils and sometimes the pasta.  The one I used for this was a Porcini Mushroom pasta.  This recipe would work with any long pasta I believe.

Pasta also screams for good hot crusty bread to accompany it.  I decided to try a new recipe I'd come across on YouTube.  The channel is Artisan Bread with Steve.  Here is the link to the one I made, https://youtu.be/Q4DQLB7_U1Q.  It is the No-Knead “Turbo” Bread in a Skillet.  I didn't change anything with this recipe this time.  I'm not sure if this technique would work with adding things like cheese or herbs to the bread but I'll likely try it at some point.

Ready to proof

 

Fresh from the oven

Look at that texture.

For the pasta dish there is terribly complex ingredient list.  OK, not really.  I used some thick sliced pancetta that I'd cured a while back.  You can find this in the Ooooh, Pancetta post in May.

Pancetta and Mushroom Pasta, serves 4

Ingredients:

4 - 6 oz pancetta, diced
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
8 oz dry pasta

Slowly cook diced pancetta in a large skillet until hot and just under being crispy.  Transfer the pancetta to a bowl leaving the rendered fat in the skillet.  Cook the sliced mushrooms in the rendered pancetta grease until desired doneness.  Cook the pasta according to package directions to almost al dente.  Put the pancetta back in the skillet with the mushrooms and turn up the heat.  Pull the pasta out of the water and put in the skillet with the mushrooms and pancetta.  Don't worry about draining the pasta.  Use tongs to mix everything together and make sure it's heated through.

Diced Pancetta starting to cook

Pancetta can now be found in most grocery stores but you could also use bacon for this recipe.  I've used the ends and pieces from slicing home cured bacon to make this dish.  Though the curing and flavoring are different for pancetta and bacon in simple terms pancetta is basically unsmoked bacon.

I've also thinly sliced red and orange sweet peppers to add to this dish for a bit of color and texture.

A good serving

Bread on the plate, time to dig in.

This meal is quick and easy to fix and lots of flavor.  The bread takes a bit of time but that is mostly letting it proof, the actual work is quick and easy.  Give the video a look and try it yourself.  I've done some other recipes of his and they've turned out very well also.

Uncle T