BLTs (short for bacon, lettuce, and tomato, for the uninitiated) are one of those sandwiches that never miss. They’re crunchy, they’re salty, the combination of flavors is a perfect ratio, and you can eat them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Ree Drummond loves a BLT so much that she translated the ingredients into a pasta sauce so you can have a classic BLT for brunch and then have another one in pasta form for dinner!
“This pasta was inspired by one of my favorite sandwiches of all time, so here we go with BLT pasta!” Drummond said in a clip from The Pioneer Woman shared on Food Network’s YouTube page.
To start, Drummond first cooked bacon bits in her skillet until crispy, and she left the bacon grease in the pan after removing the bits to drain on a paper towel. While the bacon grease is still hot, Drummond added whole cherry tomatoes, sliced green onions, and minced garlic, and allowed everything to get nice and soft until the tomatoes broke open.
“If you’re going to make BLT pasta, you’ve gotta use the bacon grease,” Drummond said. “It’s just like if you were going to use olive oil or butter … it’s all about not letting anything go to waste!”
Once the tomatoes have begun to pop, Drummond poured a bit of heavy cream and some chicken broth into her pan to create the sauce. While it cooked down a bit, Drummond added a bit of salt and pepper and allowed her pasta to boil — she opted for fusilli, but you can use whatever shape you like best!
Finally, once the sauce has thickened a bit, you can add your cooked pasta, give the entire thing a good mix, add in the bacon bits, and you’re ready to serve. Drummond served her pasta over a fresh bunch of baby kale (the L in this BLT pasta!). She said that you can also mix the baby kale into the sauce, but she likes to keep the kale as fresh as possible to keep the crunch factor.
“This is such a yummy, yummy pasta dish,” Drummond said. You can add a bit of basil or pesto to the pasta before serving, or keep it as is for that classic BLT flavor. Tweak it to your liking, and your favorite sandwich just got the pasta treatment!
Grab the full recipe here and get ready to enjoy a BLT in a brand new way.
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