Pasta with Pancetta & Tomato Sauce

One of the Amazing Ladies posted this recipe of Giada De Laurentiis' awhile back. It's super easy to make and really yummy. Especially if you have some fresh basil fresh out of your new Aerogarden to use! OK, so we had like two little leaves to use. But I'm sure it made a huge difference!

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces pancetta, diced
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• Pinch dried crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 (28-ounce) can tomato puree
• 1 pound pasta (linquine or spaghetti work well)
  
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano

Instructions:

Saute pancetta in olive oil until golden brown (about 8 minutes). Add onion and saute until tender (about 5 minutes). Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute for about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato puree and simmer uncovered over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes. Season the sauce with salt, to taste.

Cook the pasta while the sauce is simmering. Toss the pasta with the sauce and cheese. Serve!

Obviously you can play around with this recipe quite a bit. We've used tomato sauce instead of puree because that's what we had. You could use bacon or prosciutto. We threw in some fresh basil; you could also throw in some Italian seasonings. We've also considered adding roasted garlic which would probably be amazing.

Want to see pictures of my Aerogarden? :)

They're growing like crazy!

And also, because Mom has asked here's a picture of our new baker's wine rack.

I love the little baskets at the top. They're perfect for my K-cups for my new Keurig (more on my love for that little guy another day). The teas are on the left and the coffee is on the right. I love it.

And because I remembered to take a picture of it, here's a piece of the plant I stole from my Uncle J over Thanksgiving. It used to be about half an inch tall. I just plopped it in dirt and it's growing like crazy (unlike the big piece I stole from him that decided it was going to die this week :( ).


We think it's some sort of corn plant. We don't know much more than that, except that corn plants are potentially toxic to cats. They don't bother this little guy yet. Maybe that's because they were enthralled by the big one that's dying? Anyway, we keep shut the plants up when we're not home and they're not allowed unsupervised visitation with the plants so it's cool for now.