Triple Pepper Pasta

We planted plenty of peppers this year in the vegetable garden: banana, green bell, yellow bell and red bell, chili, jalapeno and ornamental. 48 pepper plants to be exact. We now have more peppers growing than I think we can eat, but this triple pepper pasta put quite a dent in Friday night’s haul.

I made this recipe up as I went along, which means I relied on the old standbys: cheese, cream, bacon. I’m also using both mascarpone and yogurt, but I don’t think you need to – I was just trying to use the ingredients in the fridge before they turned. However, I think Greek yogurt is really interesting to use in cooking and reduces the amount of cream and mascarpone I use. More on cooking with yogurt in another post.

Triple Pepper Pasta
Serves 4, though Frank and I ate the whole thing ourselves in one sitting
1 pound tagliatelle
5 large banana peppers thinly sliced
3 medium sized jalapeno peppers diced (with seeds for some heat, without to keep it mild)
1 large red bell pepper, diced
5 strips of thick sliced bacon
1 cup Parmesan
1/4 cup mascarpone
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
3/4 cup heavy cream

Bring a pot of water to boil on stove; add the tagliatelle when the peppers (read through below) have cooked, and you’re about to add mascarpone – timing should work out nicely, since tagliatelle usually only takes 5-6 minutes to cook.

While your water is heating up, cook the bacon on medium-high heat for 5 minutes on each side until browned (not crispy brown – you’ll be cutting them into slivers so shouldn’t be crunchy); remove from skillet onto plate to cool. Turn the heat down to low and let the bacon fat cool down, about 5 minutes. Add all of the peppers to the skillet at medium-low heat until you start to smell the peppers, about 5 minutes. Add the mascarpone and melt; add cream and yogurt, mix; add Parmesan to melt and turn off heat.

Drain the pasta water from pasta, and add pasta to skillet sauce, stir and serve.