The Bestest Pasta Dish

I have a favorite pasta dish.

I invented myself.

Most likely I saw a recipe somewhere and thought, I can make that, and then attempted to do so, but ultimately ended up doing my own thing.

I do that a lot.

And thus, created my very own favorite bestest pasta dish.

Ever.

Wanna see?

Here's the necessities ...

Pasta ... I like penne or bowties.  These were mini penne (say that 3 times fast).  Ideally I like the normal sized ones.  But when it's dinner time and I still haven't made dinner I usually find out normal isn't going to happen.  So you go with what you've got.

Bacon ... no explanation needed.  Bacon equals happiness.  I've done the research.

Garlic ... once a month I roast about 6 heads of garlic.  Then I have to open all the windows, turn on the whole house fan, light candles and wash my hair.  But it's worth it.  I love the flavor of roasted garlic.  I would usually use about 6 roasted cloves in this dish, but I only had 3 left.  Guess it's that time of the month.

You know what I meant.

Sun-dried tomatoes ... these babies just ooze love.  My dad dries a bunch of tomatoes every summer and I julienne them up, stick 'em a canning jar and cover with olive oil.  But I ran out, so these are from the store.

Cannellini beans ... aka white kidney.  Or you could use great northern, or navy beans.  The key is that they're white beans. Whatever floats your boat.  I like the cannellini ... nice size, texture and flavor.

Parmesan Reggiano cheese ... I buy it by the wedge and grate it or shave it myself.

Pecans ... I use raw.  But you could toast them first if you feel like it.

Basil ... yeah I know, it's not in the photo ... I didn't realize that until later.  Basil is one of my favorites and a must in my herb garden.

But there is this in the photo ...

It's not in the dish, it's just for fun.

Ok ... so I don't have a recipe.  I just basically toss it all together.  You start by frying up the bacon and boiling the pasta.  I dice the bacon and fry it in my cast iron skillet.  Then drain the bacon but leave the good little yummies in the skillet and add a bit of olive oil and the rest of the ingredients, except for the basil and cheese.  Drain the beans first of course.  You just want to heat everything up.

Then shave some of the Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top,

 and tear the basil and add it at the very end ...

there it is! 

You'll want to season with fresh ground pepper ...

Don'tcha just love my gigantic pepper mill?  I got this when I worked at Pottery Barn.  Love it!

Then you toss all that yumminess with the pasta and serve it up in a really fun dish like this one ...

And of course you totally neglect to take a photo of the finished product because by now, even though it only took about 20 minutes to make this dinner, you are still late getting it on the table ... 

because someone needs to go potty and someone else forgot to set the table and someone else didn't finish their math lesson yet and ...

everyone better get in here for dinner now!

Whew.

And when you're done eating, you realize you forgot to take a photo.

Well it doesn't really matter because you've already had that glass of wine, so it's all good.

Plus, you can just take a photo of the leftovers you had for breakfast ...

I love leftovers for breakfast.  Especially when it's my favorite, bestest pasta dish ever!

Enjoy.