Pasta with Pea Pesto and Bacon

SmittenKitchen has this great recipe for Linguine with pea pesto. Partially because I love bacon (so do you really need an excuse to add it to a recipe?), and partially because we left out the pine nuts due to allergies, I added 8oz bacon cooked an crumble. We used a 10oz package of frozen peas and penne since that’s what we had on hand. The result was an amazingly tasty dish that the kids fought us for for the leftovers for lunch the next day! Definitely a keeper.

Adapted from SmittenKitchen

Linguine with Pea Pesto

• 10-ounce package frozen peas
• 1 small garlic clove, minced–it’s raw, so be careful about adding too much! I used a small one and could definitely taste it, I had been tempted to use more and was glad I didn’t
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 8oz bacon cooked and crumbled
• Package pasta of your choice

Cook the pasta as directed, reserving 2 cups of the water when you drain. Meanwhile, microwave the peas until warm. Place peas, garlic, Parmesan cheese and olive oil in a food processor and blend until smooth (Now I see that the original recipe called for setting aside some peas…we didn’t, could be good though). Cook the bacon and crumble. Mix the pasta, pea pesto and bacon. Add enough of the reserved pasta water for a nice consistency–we used about 1 cup.