Name: Pea and bacon pasta recipe
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: Serves: 4
Ingredients: 350g (12oz) pasta shapes; 175g (6oz) frozen peas; 1 tbsp olive oil; 225g (8oz) smoked bacon, cut into small pieces; 4 tbsp half-fat crème fraîche

By Octavia Lillywhite

last updated 15 May 2023

in Recipes

This deliciously easy pea and bacon pasta dish is a great way to use up frozen peas - and it only takes minutes to prepare.

This is one of our quickest and simplest pasta dishes. The bacon cooks whilst the pasta is boiling in a big pan of water, you simply chuck the peas in with the pasta for the last couple of minutes of cooking time, and then it's just a case of stirring everything together so the crème fraîche melts into a creamy sauce over everything. Absolute perfection and quicker than ordering a takeaway. This speedy supper is also really cheap to make - with only four ingredients (plus cooking oil). In fact it's one of the stars of our brilliant cheap family meals collection.

Ingredients

350g (12oz) pasta shapes
175g (6oz) frozen peas
1 tbsp olive oil
225g (8oz) smoked bacon, cut into small pieces
4 tbsp half-fat crème fraîche

WEIGHT CONVERTER

I want to convert...

grams

cups

Method

Cook the pasta shapes in a large pan of boiling salted water for as long as it says on the packet, adding the frozen peas for the last 2-3 mins.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan and fry the smoked bacon pieces until browned. Drain the pasta and peas and add to the pan with the crème fraîche.
Heat through gently, stirring all the time, until the crème fraîche melts and coats the pasta. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper and serve immediately.

Top tip for making pea and bacon pasta

Add a couple of spoonfuls of pesto sauce with the crème fraîche for a richer flavour.

Octavia Lillywhite is an award-winning food and lifestyle journalist with over 15 years of experience. With a passion for creating beautiful, tasty family meals that don’t use hundreds of ingredients or anything you have to source from obscure websites, she’s a champion of local and seasonal foods, using up leftovers and composting, which, she maintains, is probably the most important thing we all can do to protect the environment.