The appeal of this simple pasta dish is the delicious balance of flavors it gets from combining sweet caramelized onions, smoky bacon and tangy blue cheese. Finished with a handful of sweet grape tomatoes and fresh spinach it makes an easy, one-dish meal.
PrintLinguine with Bacon, Caramelized Onions and Blue Cheese
This main-course pasta dish combines linguine with caramelized onions, crisp bacon, crumbled blue cheese, fresh tomatoes and spinach.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 10 ounces linguine (or spaghetti)
- 4 strips thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
- 5 ounces fresh spinach leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (about 3 ounces)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta.
- Fry the bacon until crisp in a large skillet, then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and drain all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the pan.
- Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and heat over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until soft and translucent, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté 1 minute longer.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low, return the bacon to the pan and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in 2 tablespoons water and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the onions are nicely caramelized, 7 to 10 minutes longer. You can add a small amount of water now and then if you feel the onions are drying out as they cook.
- Stir in the spinach, a handful at a time, waiting until each addition has wilted, before adding more.
- Add the tomatoes, combine gently and continue cooking just long enough for the them to soften slightly, 2 to 3 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed, remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.
- Cook and drain the pasta according to package directions, reserving 2 tablespoons of the pasta water. Toss the bacon-onion mixture together with the pasta, drizzling with the reserved water and a little extra olive oil.
- Plate individual servings of pasta and top each with 1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese.
janet says
Do you have an idea of how many calories per serving? Trying to watch it, you know!! Don’t mind having a smaller serving to manage the calories- I will just pair it with a salad or a green vegetable.
Lynne Webb says
We don’t provide detailed nutritional analysis, but a rough calculation puts this dish at around 500 calories per serving.