Bacon Bolognaise

Just when I think that it's getting all summery, it turns cold again. Luckily, I've got a whole swag of warm winter stewy-type meals sitting here in the drafts folder waiting to tickle your saliva glands, but this one ought to go down just as well for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere who have started to feel autumn biting around your ankles.

This recipe was inspired by my friend Jenni's trip to Rarotonga, where she had a dish that sounded so good I just had to try it out myself.

Fortuitously, the same day I read that post we had somehow ended up with two lots of meat defrosted, which is not like us at all, and both had to be used up or one would have to be thrown out. The Stephano's Spaghetti Bolognaise with Bacon was obviously just meant to be.

Of course, not having been there myself, all I really had to go off was the name, and the rest I just made up. The cherry tomatoes, for example, were only in the fridge because a certain 2-year-old had got hold of the packet in the supermarket and started eating them, forcing Dessert Chef to buy them. As it turns out, they might have been the best bit.

So thanks to Jenni for the inspiration, and to my boy for the odd choice of unsanctioned supermarket snacks.

Bacon Bolognaise

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

300g Beef Mince
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
1T Balsamic Vinegar
1T Worcester Sauce
1/2t Freshly Grated Nutmeg
1t Dried Thyme or 1T Fresh Thyme Leaves
4T Tomato Paste
Olive Oil for Frying
1 400g Tin Chopped Tomatoes
4 Rashers Bacon, chopped
4 Garlic Cloves, Minced
150g Mushrooms, peeled and sliced
1 Punnet Cherry Tomatoes
Heat oil in a pan, add the mince and brown. Season with salt and pepper, vinegar, worcester, nutmeg, and thyme. Cook these flavours into the meat, then add the tomato paste and reduce. Cook until the moisture is absorbed, then add the tinned tomatoes. Mix the bacon and garlic, then fry until crispy. Put your pasta in to cook at this point.
Add the mushrooms to the mince to heat through.
Rinse a handful of cherry tomatoes.
Add the cherry tomatoes to the bacon pan for just a couple of minutes at the end, enough time to soften and warm a little. Toss well in the garlicky salty goodness of the bacon.
Mix the bacon and tomatoes into the mince at the end, then dish over long pasta, dressed with freshly grated parmesan cheese, freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Then tell me if it tastes like Rarotonga.

Blue Chicken

OR: Cooking for the Morgue.

So you'd think that if I had a reputation to maintain I would take some steps to protect it, wouldn't you? You'd think that if New Zealand's No. 51 Blogger was coming to dinner, I'd be at pains to research the best recipe I could and to make sure it was all as good as it could be, wouldn't you?

I say: Nah. Although I had a concept in mind, I didn't actually make up my mind about what I was going to cook for Morgue and StrongerLight until I went into the kitchen and, to be quite honest, happened to open up the fridge looking for a spark of inspiration.

What I saw instead was not something expensive or gourmet or haute cuisine: It was two packets of Blue Cheese, bang on their Best Before dates, and reduced from $4.70 each to 0.50c each, which Dessert Chef had spotted and bought a few days earlier. But hey, it's Blue Cheese. What's it going to do, go mouldy?

I had my inspiration. I will keep this brief:
Take your deliciously ripe Blue Cheese and slice it into thin, flat pieces. Dispose of annoying crumbly bits in your nearest mouth.
Slide the cheese under the skin of 4-5 large chicken legs. Wrap whole rashers of bacon around the chicken, fixing in place with skewers, and place on a bed of sliced leek, halved cherry tomatoes, cubed pre-cooked potato and kumera, and sliced mushrooms. Season and drizzle with a viniagrette mixture.
Bake at 200C for 1 1/2 hrs. Cook up a pot of jasmine rice, and reserve the starchy water when you drain it.

Remove the chicken from the roasting tray, placing onto your plates with the rice and steamed veges. Drain the juices from the pan into a bowl. Scoop off the bulk of the fat (there will be HEAPS due to the melting of the cheese) and return to the roasting tray. Add the starchy water from the rice as a thickener and mash up the veges there to make a thick and chunky gravy, while you heat it over an element. And guess what? That gravy is completely Gluten-Free.

OK, it was a bit more like a soup than a gravy, but with a little bit of stock and some more time on the stove, it would have been much more like the gravy we know and love. As it was, it was delicious regardless. And not to be outdone, Morgue and StrongerLight brought the dessert. What a grand way to top off a fabulous night.

Thanks, guys. Let's do it again sometime soon.

Quarantine That Bacon Over HERE!

So the much-dreaded Swine Flu is officially here n NZ, and it's officially a Level 5 Pandemic worldwide.

It seems that either nature has caught up with us, or us meddling with nature has caught up with us.

There is, however, one tragic misconception associated with the Dreaded Swine Flu: that the Swine Flu came from pigs. This awful failure of understanding has seen pigs across the world slaughtered, in much the same way that birds across Asia and Europe were murdered during the Avian Flu scare a couple of years ago.

This is crazy. For starters, there is still no evidence to suggest that this strain of flu, which is similar to but not identical to a strain of flu which affects pigs, is in any way actually related to pigs, or that it any way jumped from pigs to humans. However, the panic buttons were slammed home, and scared people - particularly in poorer countries - put thousands of animals to the knife, ruining businesses and leaving people starving. Who needs a Pandemic when we have man-made famine?

You cannot get Swine Flu by eating bacon. And if a pig sneezes, you will not get Swine Flu. OK, I'm not a scientist or a veterinarian, but I'm pretty sure from everything I've read on the subject that these two positions are verifiable fact.

It is only the fact that we are so ready to mess with nature that even allows the spectre of this fear to rule our perceptions and thus, our actions. On the basis of a purely imaginary fear, thousands of pigs were killed for no good reason. Where on earth will we be when biotech and genetic engineering do actually tip the scales of science against nature's delicate balance, and a real plague is unleashed? We'll all be wishing we had done more to support our organic farmers, that's where.

On that note, I want to prove a point: I ate bacon. I didn't get Swine Flu. Sweet, bro.

For a couple of weeks there, Bulls Bacon had a stall at the Hutt Riverbank Market. I was savvy enough to swipe up some of their wares, locally raised and prepared free-range organic bacon, with nothing added. No Swine Flu here.

I've written more than once about what I think of free-range, organic meat. Bring it on, I say.

Bulls Bacon was no exception.
Most commercially produced bacon is pumped full of water and nitrites to preserve it, and to give it some flavour. This is especially true of most stall-bred pork, which has very little flavour of its own anyway.

Of course, a lot of the bacon we eat here actually comes from China, so we have very little way of knowing how it has been raised or prepared before it reaches us, and that, to me, is more of a worry than Swine Flu. Conversely, this bacon was the real deal, 100% meat. And the difference was obvious immediately.
Put this stuff in a frying pan, and the pan doesn't suddenly fill up with water, bubbling and hissing away as the chemicals are forced from the meat, causing your breakfast to boil. Rather, it actually fries. Seems to fit with the concept of the FRYING PAN.
Just look at that. My mouth is watering again just looking at it.
The taste was stronger than normal bacon, a bit smoky, slightly gamey, and it had a tougher texture due to the thicker cut of the rashers. Overall the Bulls Bacon was by far a superior product to anything other than Freedom Farms Bacon that you can get from the supermarket, and worth paying a little more for.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen them back for a couple of weeks now. I'm hoping that their pigs didn't start sneezing.

(Disclaimer: As usual, I have nothing to gain by promoting what I see as responsible farming practices. I just think it matters.)

Who needs Twitter?

When I first started investigating what this Twitter thing was all about, I deduced that the 'Serious' users took umbrage with the 'Frivolous' users, whom they accused of wasting precious bandwidth by posting worthless junk like "Hey Look I'm having a bagel for breakfast", and "On the Tube, with a coffee and a danish".

Far better, the Serious users would argue, that Twitter be used for Useful Things, like the [Insert Product or Service Here] that the Serious user is peddling.

Truth be told, I still haven't quite figured Twitter out. I don't know how to follow #streams yet, and I seem to have a lot of people following me who just want to sell me stuff. So I ignore them.

Am I a Serious Twitter user? I use Twitter as an additional tool to keep an ear to the ground in the publishing world mainly, but it's so full of noise that it's hard to know what you're hearing that's worthwhile and what's not. Twitter is, for me, a mild diversion at the very most. I'm sure there's some real value to it, but I haven't had to the time to really get to grips with it yet.

I do, however, pop links to Freshly Ground up there from time to time. I haven't yet posted what I had for breakfast on Twitter, but there's a first time for everything.

Even though this is a scheduled post, when I get back online I'll be sure to let all my 30-odd followers know that if they'd like a look at what a Fantasy writer cum-Weekend Chef eats for breakfast on a Sunday, they can get a glimpse, in full living colour, with the simple click of a mouse.

So when it comes to posting on Twitter about what you had for breakfast, who needs it? That's what I've got a blog for!

French Toast with Bacon and Maple Syrup

(Serves 3, or 2 if you're slow)

Start with 3 large free range eggs.
In a large bowl, mix up the eggs with 3T Milk, and season with freshly ground pepper and salt.
Add a little grate of fresh nutmeg. (Ah, freshly grated nutmeg. How you brighten my days and warm my nights.)
Start frying up some bacon in a hot pan, preferably greased with the bacon rind.
Soak a piece of bread in the egg mixture while a slab of butter sizzles in a nearby pan. I have two pans on the go at a time like this; there's no point letting it get cold. Fry each piece of French Toast for about 3-4 minutes a side, until brown and crispy and cooked through.
Dish up with crispy fried bacon and maple syrup, with a pot of fresh coffee near at hand. Best eaten with the sun pouring in on the kitchen table, or rain running down the window while you're cozy inside.

A Day to Remember

What a weekend it was. It was such a weekend, it's taken me until now to catch up. The Big Deal was the civil union/wedding of my good friends, Morgue and StrongerLight. Congratulations to you both!
Yes, that's the handsome groom in the kilt and the lovely bride in white, and the official photographer lurking under their feet.Once it got dark, you could even see some of my handiwork in the background against the walls! Thanks to Jenni for letting me use her photo, since I was silly enough to put our camera away rather early in the piece.

I was also lucky enough to meet Giffy for the first time, and hopefully we'll be able to have them down for dinner sometime soon.

Wellington turned on the most beautiful day for the wedding couple and the almost 300 guests who turned up to attend. I betcha they felt popular.

To put that number in perspective, the Civil Union was an open invitation to everyone the bride and groom knew, and the catering was a bring-a-plate/pot-luck affair. And you know what? It really, really worked.

So what did the crew at Freshly Ground contribute to help feed such a mass? Well, full credit goes to Dessert Chef who whipped up a batch of mini-quiches, and they were so nice we made them again for dinner. But the salsa was just something I whipped up at home. Apologies to any of the guests reading this, who may have had one of Dessert Chef's delicious creations but now feels they were shortchanged by not getting a drizzle of this lovely fresh dressing. Now, you can try it yourself!

Bacon Quiche with Fresh Spicy Salsa

(Makes 1 Large or 2 Medium Quiches)

Quiche Ingredients (I'm doing this because my big sister told me to...)
400g bacon, chopped and fried
1 onion, also chopped and fried
3 large Free Range Eggs
1 Cup Grated Cheese
1 Cup Self-Raising Flour
1 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Peas (Frozen ones are fine)
In a bowl, mix up the fried bacon, onions, cheese, peas, and flour.
Add the eggs and milk and mix well.

Pour into a greased and floured pie dish, and place into the oven at 200C for 25-30mins.
Check the quiche is cooked by putting a knife through the centre. If it comes out clean, it's all done. If not, pop it back in for a few more minutes and check again.

Meanwhile, whip up your salsa (Warning: Uncharacteristic cheat methods ahead).
In a small bowl, chop up 1 inch of cucumber, 1 tomato, 1/8 of a red capsicum, and about 1/4 Cup of Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce. Mix well and leave to sit for a while, preferably in the fridge.
Spoon the salsa over the hot quiche, for a cool, spicy, crunchy contrast to the hot savoury eggy thing on the plate. It's like a salad in disguise.

Pasta Carbonara

When you start asking people how they cook a carbonara, they get all vague and unhelpful. I have asked myself, accordingly, is this because everyone has their own secret recipe for carbonara, passed down from generation to generation by blood oath of silence, or do people just not know? Is the true shame of it that most people's carbonara comes from a jar?

I'll be honest with you: I don't have a secret recipe. I don't have a recipe full stop. I just know that I like a good carbonara, I know how they should taste, and so I went ahead and made one. I didn't even go surfing for clues. I just started cooking.

The results were... carbonara-y. Certainly very tasty. If I was served it up as a carbonara in a flash restaurant I might be a bit unimpressed, but if it was a cheap pasta place I'd be stoked. And anyway, I can't afford to go to flash restaurants, so the point is moot. I can cook as well as the places I can afford to go out to, and that must be something, right?

Best of all, this took about 15 minutes, so its brilliant for a week night to feed the family in a hurry.

Pasta Carbonara

(Serves 4)

Grease a pan with the rind cut from 4 rashers of bacon. Put the bacon fat on the edge of the pan, so that it continues to spread over the pan during the cooking process.

Break up 1 piece of stale bread and fry in the bacon fat. When the bread is starting to crisp, as 1 finely chopped onion and 2 finely chopped cloves of NZ garlic. Soften until almost starting to brown, then remove everything but the fat from the pan.

Regrease the pan with the bacon fat and bring to a high heat. Fry the 4 rashers of bacon, chopped into 1cm square pieces. When the bacon is cooked and starting to brown, remove the fat from the pan and add the onion/garlic/bread back in.

Add 1 1/2 chopped tomatoes to the pan. Reduce rapidly. Add a squeeze of BBQ sauce and mix everything thoroughly to heat through.
Meanwhile, boil up a pot of pasta and make a standard quantity of alfredo sauce. Mix the pasta, alfredo and bacon together, and serve with fresh steamed veges.

First of the Summer Burgers

Spring is an awfully two-faced creature. Yesterday we were basking in the sun, discussing how it actually felt hot outside, and today the country is battening down the hatches as gale force winds close Wellington airport and rip rooves off houses. Oh, and it's raining and cold. The fire is burning at home, while here at work the yard is a hazardous place to be without a hardhat. I would love to point out how this must be a sign of climate change, but I've lived in Wellington for 20 years now. Nothing about this change of heart surprises me. I just feel sorry for the lighting guy that I know is out in this soup up a 45' boom lifter wrapped up in a tarp and desperately needing to pee, waiting for the First AD to call lunch. Chin up, Saxon, this is the glamour of the film industry.
Anyway, we're willing to take any hint of spring as an excuse to get back into summery food. Dessert Chef made fresh bread rolls using our standard pizza dough recipe, rising them in Texas muffin tins so they kept their shape, and we had Bacon and Egg burgers to welcome burger season to our house for the year.
I'm sure I don't need to pretend this is a recipe. Fry the bacon. Fry the eggs until the the whites are set and the yolks are still running. Dress with garlic aioli and pile on top of shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, beetroot, cucumber, pineapple and cheese.
Welcome back to summer! (Let's keep up the illusion, anyway, shall we?)

BaconChicken

Well, I can't complain about the polls any more. For the first time ever, I got called and asked to participate in a political survey. Excellent. Now I feel like I've had my say, even before election day. Perception is everything. I have aided the perception somewhat of what I believe in. Good stuff.

Now, onto less political and more tasty things: BaconChicken. We had a discussion about whether or not if you took away the bacon, these would be Vegetarian Chicken. Yes, there is oftentimes silliness in the Freshly Ground Kitchen. But seriously, we have soy-based tofu dogs (not us personally, but they're out there), so how come we can't get tofu drumsticks? Dessert Chef says I can't use tofu until I can prove that she won't be able to taste it. And if you look closely, you'll see that by weight it's not actually cheaper than meat (last time I checked anyway - things may have changed by now). So no tofu for us. No, we'll have our BaconChicken meaty, please! (Apologies to any vego readers out there...)

OK, its not exactly the quickest and easiest, but these chicken drumsticks came out beautifully. The secret ingredient is jellied cranberry.

BaconChicken Drumsticks

(Servings: Allow 1 rasher of bacon per 2 Drumsticks, and 2-3 Drumsticks per person.)

Spread the cranberry over the chicken and then wrap a couple of long strips of bacon around each. Season with freshly ground salt and black pepper.
Trim the fat off the bacon and lay it on an oven rack, then place the baconchicken on top of it. I cooked ours on my favourite Pizza setting for about 40 minutes, turning every ten minutes or so.
Serve with steamed greens and roasted veges (cook these in the bottom of the oven, starting about 20 minutes before the chicken).

Bacon & Leek Risotto

Where does the time go? Every time I turn around it seems to be a bit later than it was before. Of course, maybe if I just stopped turning around, I'd save a bit of time and not be quite so dizzy.

Yes, Spring is upon us, and there seems to be a million things to do. Suddenly the days have gone by and I haven't posted on my blog since Friday! I can see this is going to become more frequent as the days get longer and the appeal of sitting at the computer is overridden by the desire to sit out on the deck with a glass of wine instead. Everything in moderation, I say. The garden is also going to take up more time now that the Spring growth is getting underway. Ah, how I wish that weeds were a part of my culinary repertoire. Alas, they are not, so I must weed and find things that are edible and beautiful to grow. Keep an eye out here for lovely green pictures of the few wonderful things that are indeed cropping up in pots and piles of compost around our place.

Anyway, I know why you're here. You expect me to get your mouth watering with more delicious recipes and foodie photos. Ah well, I won't disappoint. My topic today: Risotto. Mmmmm.

The risotto I'm going to post today is, IMHO, the best I've ever made. OK, so I've made about 3 (here, here and here), but with this one I really nailed something. It would probably be helpful if I could remember what that something was by the end of the post. I suspect it has something to do with practice, but I'll keep on believing it's a kind of magic.

Other Risotto news:

• I had the Bier Stick Risotto for lunch today, out of the freezer.
• Connie Clarkson on Radio NZ today did a recipe for Asparagus Risotto (Audio link here until approx Oct 1 2008).
• And I had a Risotto Post all lined up ready for the writing and the publishing. Coincidence? Probably.

Hmm, somehow I thought there was more to that. Well, onto the good stuff...

Bacon and Leek Risotto

(Serves 4)

Trim the fat from 4 bacon rashers and put these into a pan. Heat moderately to grease the pan (and keep looking while you're cooking!)

While the fat is crackling, slice up a leek into rings, dice an onion and slice a carrot. Remove the crispy fat from the pan and add the veges. Sweat them in the bacon fat until they just start to soften. (Sounds a bit too healthy, I know, but if you feel you're not getting your share, just have ice cream with extra ice cream afterwards - No, National Heart Foundation, I didn't really say that...). Remove the veges from the pan and add a splash of olive oil to reheat.

When your significant other isn't looking, eat the bacon crackling and slip little bits to your almost 2-year old, who also really likes it (No, NHF, I didn't really say that either).

Chop the bacon into bite-size pieces and add to the hot oil. Brown the bacon and then add 2T of concentrated tomato paste and mix through well. Turn the heat down a little if it seems that the tomato paste might burn. When the liquid has absorbed (1-2 mins) return the veges to the pan. Mix through thoroughly and allow to sweat for a couple more minutes.

Warm up 1C of vege stock or beef stock.
Add 1 Cup of Aborio rice to the pan and mix well. The rice will crackle, but don't let it burn. This will crisp the rice slightly and get a lot of heat through it before you start to add the liquids.

Add 1/2C of white wine to the pan. Allow the alcohol to burn off and the liquid to be absorbed before starting with the stock. I would make wine recommendations here, but it would be a load of bull. If there's wine in the fridge, it'll get used. Assuming I don't have to moisten my own throat first, because that's important when you have to stand over a hot stove for half an hour cooking dinner.

I don't know who said that Risotto was easy, because it's not. It's one of the most demanding dishes I know how to cook. Give me a roast or a stew any day, thanks. But I digress.

Start adding the stock a ladelful (about 1/4C) at a time, and let it absorb into the rice before adding the next quantity. Continue with this until you have used up all your stock AND the rice is cooked - about 17 minutes. If the rice is not cooked when you run out of stock, just use water. During this time, you MUST keep stirring the pan. This is why it's a pain to make, because you simply cannot walk away from the stove. Not that I'm trying to discourage you from cooking risotto. If it wasn't so darned delicious, I wouldn't keep coming back to it.
Remove the cooked risotto from the heat and add 1/4C grated fresh parmesan and 25g of butter. Stir these through the pan and dish immediately, with more freshly grated parmesan, extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.

Just like your Tuck Shop used to make, only better.

Righto, back to the food.

Like any red-blooded kiwi lad, I like a nice pie. Especially when you can pull some leftovers out of the freezer , grate some cheese and roll out some pastry and away you go.

Ok, I'll be honest. Dessert Chef C made this one, and the filling was actually from Liz E. Bear's Bolognaise. I even think that the cheese was pre-grated! So given all those conditions, I'll try to represent as accurately as I can how to whip up a luverly Mince 'n' Cheese Pie from scratch. Of course, if you too have Liz E. Bear's leftovers in the freezer then you can just use them!

Mince and Cheese Pie

(Serves 4)

For the filling, fry up an onion and some garlic, then add 400g of Beef Mince. Brown and cook well. Add a handful of chopped mushrooms and courgettes towards the end. Add about 400g of pasta sauce, preferably a thick one. Heat through and reduce until the sauce is nice and thick. In other words, make up a Bolognaise sauce and thicken it. Put aside to cool.

Grease a 30cm pie dish, then sprinkle it with flour. On a floured bench, roll out a sheet of flaky puff pastry. Drape the pastry over the dish and ease into the corners of the dish without tearing it. Roll out a second sheet and stand by.
Spoon in the filling. Grate 1 1/2C of cheddar cheese and a 1/4C of parmesan cheese over the mince, followed by a few twists of freshly ground pepper. Place the top sheet of pastry on the pie and press the edges into the base firmly with a fork. Brush lightly with milk. Trim away the excess pastry and poke the top with a few airholes to let the steam escape.
Place in the oven at 200C on the centre rack for about 40-45 mins. Remove from the oven and allow to stand for at least 5 mins.
Dish with care. Filling will be hot and delicious.

Isaac doesn't seem to do too well with mince, so Dessert Chef C made him little bacon and egg pies instead. Lucky Boy!

Mmmm... Pie...

I can't claim responsibility for this masterpiece. I'll be the first to tell you that Dessert Chef C has more tricks up her sleeve than just jelly and trifle. This one's not even a dessert! I believe the recipe is straight from the Dollars & Sense Cookbook, with a few minor tweaks. And for anyone who ever thought that a service station could dish up a bacon and egg pie, try this and you'll never eat a dodgy old servo B&E ever again.

If you're a keen baker, feel free to make your own pastry. We just use the frozen stuff, which is perfectly fine, and cheap too.

Bacon & Egg Pie

Roll out about 300g of pastry to line a greased oven dish, about 27cm round. Roll the remainder out to go on top and pop back in the fridge.

Chop up 4 rashers of bacon and 1 onion, then fry until lightly browned in the bacon rind. Place half the bacon and onion on the bottom of the pie, and put 1 cup of cooked frozen veges on top. Break the eggs over these and as you prefer, either break up the yolks or leave them whole. Grate about 1/2C of cheddar cheese over the eggs, then place the rest of the bacon and onion on top of the cheese.

Place the top layer of pastry on, press the edges down with a fork, and punch it with several air holes. Brush with a little milk. Bake at 200C for about 40mins. Ensure the filling is cooked before serving.

Creamy Bacon and Leek Pasta

Leeks are plentiful at this time of year, and since writing this blog has forced me to think about cooking some new and interesting stuff, I figured it was about time that leeks made it onto the menu. I remember having something like this while I was in London many years ago, but since I couldn't recall the exact ingredients, I just sort of made this up as I went along (yes, as usual).

Creamy Bacon and Leek Pasta

Boil up a pot of pasta, whatever you happen to have on hand.

In a large frying pan, heat some oil and fry 4 finely sliced garlic cloves. As this starts to brown, add 4 chopped rashers of bacon (I also threw in 1/2 a chorizo sausage, sliced, since it was in the fridge). When the bacon starts to go crispy, add to the pan:
1 chopped cored apple;
1 large diced tomato;
1 carrot sliced into thick wedges;
1 large squirt (about 2-3T) of worcester sauce.


Allow this to simmer for a few minutes before adding 1 leek, sliced into roughly 1 cm pieces. As the leeks start to cook, break the rings up and mix them through the pan.


Simmer for 15 minutes are so. Add about 150ml of cream to the pan and allow to heat through. Turn the heat down and spoon several large dollops of ricotta cheese over the pan, but don't stir in. You just want this to warm, but not to disappear into the mix.


Dish the pasta onto plates, and carefully extract the bacon & leeks from the pan, keeping the ricotta piles intact. Serve with freshly ground pepper.