The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bacon, breadcrumbs give pasta delightful crunch
I am in the business of testing and sharing recipes, but there are times when breakfast, lunch or dinner at my house is the result of a quick scan of the refrigerator and pantry shelves.
On a recent Sunday morning, I made an omelet with feta, a couple of wilting green onions and a bit of jarred chili crisp. For dinner one recent night, we ate salmon canned in oil over mixed fresh greens with sliced bell pepper and cucumber and a carrot-ginger dressing. Why? Because I had everything that I needed to make those things in the refrigerator and pantry.
And the dishes came together quickly.
So, when I looked through cookbook author Amanda Frederickson’s “Simple Beautiful Food” (Ten Speed Press, 2020), I felt I had found a kindred spirit. Her “choose your own adventure” style of recipe writing is perfect for those weeknights when quick-and-easy is the first criteria.
She gathered such recipes for her “fridge foraging” posts on Instagram, some of which you also can find on her website. A version of the recipe featured in this week’s column first appeared in that series.
For the Bucatini with Cauliflower and Bacon, which is in the cookbook, the only thing I had to buy to make it was the bucatini, but I could have made this with any pasta I had on hand. No cauliflower? Use another favorite vegetable, such as fresh or frozen broccoli.
You boil the pasta and while it is boiling fry the bacon, and then use the bacon fat to cook the onion and cauliflower. Toss the pasta and vegetables with freshly grated Parmesan, hot pasta water and lemon and top that with a crunchy topping you can throw together in minutes: The topping is simply crisped bacon mixed with lightly browned breadcrumbs and lemon zest. Add a few fresh parsley leaves on top if you like.
That little crisped topping idea is one I’ve since carried over to other dishes. I love finding hidden gems like that in recipes that I add to my repertoire.
Frederickson includes a chapter of them that she calls “Flavor Gold.” It features a handful of super-simple recipes that allow you to quickly add flavor and texture to dishes. I made one of them, a garlic confit: Peel three heads of garlic, place them in a pan, cover them with 1 1/2 cups of olive oil and slow roast them at 250 degrees for two hours. They can then be stored in the refrigerator for 1 week.
I have since tossed that garlic in with butter and made scrumptious pan-seared chicken thighs, mashed it and added it to eggs I was whisking for a frittata, and spread it on toast for making tartines.
Each quick and easy, pantry-friendly dish got a garlicky flavor boost from a bit of “flavor gold.” Now, to make garlic bread!