MALFADINE ALLA ROMANA (Pasta with Bacon and Cheese sauce)

Submitted by FlemishMinx

"Malfadine is a hearty ribbon-like pasta that I came across one day in an Italian gourmet shop. I had no idea what to do with the stuff so of course consulted the internet and came across this recipe. In typical fashion, I've tweaked it a bit. If you can't find malfadine, tagliatelle would be an acceptable substitute. My husband and I can eat this entire recipe, but I would imagine the yield would stretch to three people, especially if you serve a salad or vegetable on the side. I always think as I eat this : How could a pasta dish with no garlic taste so good ?"

 

• Ready In: 40mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 2

ingredients

• 10 ounces mafalda pasta
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped finely
• 7 ounces lardons or 7 ounces smoked bacon
• 1 (14 ounce) can chopped imported Italian tomatoes, with liquid
• 12 sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and chopped
• 3 tablespoons parmesan cheese or 3 tablespoons romano cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper

directions

1. If using bacon, cut into cubes.
2. In a frying pan, saute the onion till softened but not browned.
3. Add the lardons or bacon cubes, and brown them.
4. Add the canned tomatoes and the chopped sun-dried tomatoes.
5. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Meanwhile, cook the malfadine al dente.
7. Strain (reserving 2 TBS of the water), then pour into the pan with the prepared sauce, adding the reserved 2 TBS pasta water and then leaving the pasta to flavor 1 minute.
8. Add the butter and the parmesan or romano cheese, take the pan off the heat and mix everything well.
9. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Reviews

[KelBel]

I did not have lardons but had smoked sun dried tomatoes, I also used penne pasta. This was a pretty tasty dish, but the smoky ingredients overpowered the cheese. We added more to the top with fresh ground black pepper.

 

[evelynathens]

This was an extremely flavourful pasta dish and much appreciated. I am lucky enough to find lardons here, so I could follow the recipe exactly. The lardons provided a smoky backdrop to the intense tomato sauce and the sun-dried tomatoes added a salty/sweet note that I thought was just right but DH thought was a bit too much of a good thing, so next time I'll add a couple (or three) less - maybe my sun-dried tomatoes were just extra-large, plump ones (they were). The butter and cheese added at the end really 'rounded' out the flavour.