(Chilli pepper penne - Authentic Italian recipes)

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400 g (14 oz) penne
450 g (1 lb) fresh ripe tomatoes, peeled and cubed
100 g (3 1/2 oz) bacon, cubed
50 g (1 3/4 oz) unsalted butter
2 red chilli peppers
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
100 g (3 1/2 oz) grated ewe's cheese (pecorino)
Salt

Time:
preparation: 15 minutes
cooking: 25 minutes
Difficulty:
easy recipe
Nutrition Facts (amount per serving):
Calories: 656 (kCal) 33 % GDA - 2743 (kJ)
Protein: 23.9 (g) 46 % GDA
Total fat: 27.4 (g) 39 % GDA
Total carbohydrate: 83.6 (g) 31 % GDA
Sugars: 8.7 (g) 9 % GDA

traditional first dish from Rome, made with tomatoes, bacon and ewe's cheese.
This recipe can be made in different ways. Somebody adds wild mushrooms to the ingredients (about 250 g - 8 1/2 oz) to brown in the butter after bacon. Other people serve this pasta sprinkled with grated Parmesan and ewe's cheese.

Melt the butter in a pan and brown bacon; remove and set aside bacon In the same butter brown the cloves of garlic and red chilli pepper, remove them too. Add tomatoes and parsley; season to taste with salt and simmer, half-covered, for 15-20 minutes or until sauce is well reduced. At the end add bacon.
Meanwhile cook penne in a large kettle of boiling salted water according to package directions; drain well and pour them into a large bowl; sprinkle with ewe's cheese, dress with the sauce, stir gently and serve immediately.

Note

- we browned bacon together with red chilli pepper in 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and so we didn't use butter at all. We didn't use garlic too. After removing bacon and chilli pepper, we added tomatoes (you can also use canned tomatoes), a little red wine, 2 tablespoons dried chives and we cooked our sauce until well reduced. At the end we added bacon..

What's the right wine?

Our suggestion is: Chianti (red wine from Tuscany).

A little history

This recipe belongs to the beginning of the last century; it isn't very old. An innkeeper created it because he wanted to modify "bucatini, Amatrice-style". In fact in both these recipes there are natural but poor ingredients, typical of that region.