Mezze Paccheri with Spring Peas & Candied Bacon in a Simple Parmesan Cream Sauce

This simple pasta dish has saved the day for many family meals. It seems like we most often enjoy this for Sunday dinner. Now that I have mentioned “Sunday dinner”, I will go ahead and invite you to join our family debate.

Every other day of the week, dinner refers to that 6 o’clock ((ish)) evening meal BUT on Sundays, “dinner” refers to the noon-hour meal that follows the Sunday morning church service. I call it dinner, but the herd calls it lunch. I know I am right – but would love to hear what you call it – Sunday “DINNER” or Sunday “~~lunch~~“??

Regardless of the name, the reaction to this pasta meal is ALWAYS the same :: no leftovers and a meal sprinkled with music to my ears :: “this is my favorite!” and “can I have seconds?!”.

The trick is having a few key ingredients on hand ::

a bag of dried pasta
pre-cooked bacon ((I usually have extra candied bacon on hand, but also love Hormel’s pre-cooked bacon strips))
frozen spring peas
cream
a block of quality parmesan cheese
a block of white sharp cheddar
Dijon mustard
lemon zest & chopped chives (optional)

Usually, when sharing a recipe, I include photos of every step and all ingredients – but true to life, I was actually whipping this meal up for Sunday DINNER. I was more focused on getting the meal to the table than snapping pictures of each step. And each step is so speedy, the steps flew by before I had time to realize I was missing photo ops.

While I don’t have the photos, I do have a few great tips that will help you get this meal on the table in record speed:

First, start by boiling water. To speed up the boiling, cover the pot ((sorry if that is too obvious, but I forget that step about half of the time!))
Second, in a large skillet, start heating the cream
While step 1 & 2 are underway, shred your cheeses, zest the lemon & chop bacon ((or better yet, ask hubby/kiddos to help with this step!!))
Boil the pasta in salted water, subtracting one minute from the suggested cooking time
Next, pour the frozen peas into a colander and run COLD water over them until they are thawed
By this time, the cream should be thickening, so stir in cheeses, mustard, chives & lemon zest
Once the pasta is cooked, reserve some of the cooking liquid, drain remaining pasta and add the pasta to the cream sauce
Stir in peas and heat them through and season to taste