Once in a while, there’s nothing better than a plate of fresh pasta. The beauty of a fresh pasta like tagliatelle is that you can pair it with rich sauces or make a delicious meal with just a few ingredients. In today’s recipe, we are taking the second route.
What to expect: bite into your fresh tagliatelle, cooked aldente, and taste the flour and eggs that make the pasta thick and delicious. Meet a piece or three of crispy bacon, and enjoy the creamy balsamic and pecorino flavour that brings this dish together.
What is special about tagliatelle?
If you are a true pasta lover, there’s nothing better than a wide and thick strand of pasta that fills your mouth with just a bite. It’s big, chewy, and if you buy an artisan fresh tagliatelle, you can taste the ingredients used to make it, including the eggs and the Italian wheat.
With so much surface, and with added texture when it comes to artisan varieties, it holds the sauce beautifully.
It pairs amazingly with rich sauces as well as simple dressings like extra virgin olive oil and parmesan. You can enjoy it with white sauces or red meat ragus; either way, the tagliatelle will make the dish delicious.
To sum it up, we often consider pasta to be a vessel to hold the sauce. In my opinion, when it comes to a fresh tagliatelle made with high quality ingredients, it’s the pasta that makes the dish and not the other way around.
Are tagliatelle and fettuccine the same?
While tagliatelle and fettuccine are both Italian pasta, available in both dry and fresh format, they differ in width and sometimes even thickness. Tagliatelle are much wider at about 7 mm 0r 0.7 cm, and usually 2mm or 0.2 cm thick. Fettuccine’s width, on the other hand, doesn’t exceed 5 mm 0r 0.5 cm and in terms of thickness they are usually as thick as tagliatelle, or slightly less.
Is tagliatelle meant to be chewy?
All Italian pasta, especially fresh or dried artisan one, will be chewy. Tagliatelle can be considered extra chewy because of its wider and often thicker than other pasta shapes.
How do you eat tagliatelle?
You can eat them simply, or you can enjoy them with more complex sauces. Either way, they will taste incredible, provided you are using a high quality artisan fresh or dry tagliatelle pasta.
How do Italians eat tagliatelle?
The three favourite ways Italian like to eat tagliatelle are:
- with the classic Bolognese sauce, an authentic recipe from Bologna;
- with a white creamy sauce, which often includes bacon, mushrooms, and sometimes peas; that’s often called Boscaiola.
- simply dressed with an exceptional extra virgin olive oil like Novello, simple seasoning, and a generous grating of parmesan or pecorino cheese.
Today, we are taking the third option to the next level. Keep reading to get the recipe.
How do you boil tagliatelle pasta?
You can cook your tagliatelle just the way you would cook any other pasta, so with plenty of water and salt, paying attention to the cooking instructions, and mixing from time to time.
Because of the size of tagliatelle, allow it more room with a larger pot and more water. Also, keep in mind that if you are cooking fresh tagliatelle, it will take less time than dry.
Finally, expect it to be chewy so don’t leave it to cook longer because of that; it’s meant to taste that way.
Tagliatelle with Bacon and Cream of Balsamic
After this long tagliatelle chat, it’s come the time to make our tagliatelle with bacon and cream of balsamic and pecorino. I hope you are excited to taste it. Luckily, it’s going to be a quick recipe, so you don’t have to wait too long :).
Here’s the recipe card. You can either print it out or follow along on your screen.
Happy cooking!
Tagliatelle with Bacon and Cream of Balsamic
Equipment
- 1 pan or small pot
- 1 large pot
- 1 silicone spoon
- 1 strainer
- 1 grater
Ingredients
- 400 gr fresh tagliatelle pasta
- 1 tbsp butter
- 80 gr bacon cubes
- 2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP
- 200 ml cooking cream
- 70 gr pecorino cheese
- pepper
Instructions
- Melt your butter in a pan.
- Add the bacon, and let them sauté.
- Put the water for the pasta to boil. Make sure to season it with salt well.
- In the meantime, grate your pecorino cheese.
- Add the cooking cream to the bacon, and season with just pepper.
- Add half the grated pecorino and mix well.
- Next, pour the balsamic vinegar of Modena, and mix.
- Drain your pasta and reserve some cooking water.
- Transfer the tagliatelle to the same pot and add the cream of balsamic to it.
- Mix and add the remaining grated pecorino cheese.
- Your tagliatelle with bacon and cream of balsamic are ready to serve. Buon appetito!
- PS: feel free to drizzle some extra balsamic on top.
Notes
If you would like to get your hands on our exceptional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena here’s the Silver IGP we used in the recipe. If you want to make this dish extra special, I suggest going for the Platinum or Gold Balsamic vinegars, because they are richer, thicker and more balanced.
