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I spy with my little eye…bacon…asparagus…pasta…Parmesan…
…and?
(Triple gold star if you can guess the secret ingredient!)
White wine.
Mmmmm.
(Did you guess it?) Actually, if you’re not a fan of cooking with wine, you can easily sub in some chicken broth and maybe a hint of lemon juice.
But this recipe was 100% inspired by leftovers in my kitchen on the Sunday afternoon that I whipped it up. And after having had friends over the night before, half a bottle of white wine was corked and calling my name. So, as I like to do, I added half of it to the pasta, and poured the rest into a small glass to drink while I cooked. Perfection.
Seriously, though, the wine ended up being the perfect ingredient to pull this simple pasta together. Let me explain…
Begin by bringing a large pot of water to a boil, and cook your pasta (I went with linguine) according to package instructions until it’s al dente.
Meanwhile, add your diced bacon to a saute pan. Cook it up in a pan until it’s nice and crispy. Then remove it with a slotted spoon, and leave the leftover (about 1 Tbsp.) grease in the pan.
(For timing’s sake, I would add your pasta to the boiling water at this point after your bacon is cooked.)
Add your fresh asparagus, and saute it in the bacon grease until it’s nice and cooked and still has a bit of a “bite”. (Try to avoid overcooking it!)
Then add the white wine, and give the bottom of the pan a good stir to scrape those brown bits off the bottom. It might not be the prettiest, but trust me, this step is so worth it and the pasta’s loveliness will recover. ;)
Let the white wine boil down for a few minutes until it is reduced by about half.
Then once the pasta is ready, drain it and add it to the pan, along with the cooked bacon and asparagus and half of the Parmesan. Give it a good toss.
Then sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan cheese on top.
And then dive in! Because I guarantee you that this pasta will disappear quickly. ;)
This 5-Ingredient Bacon Asparagus Pasta is super easy to make, and full of absolutely amazing flavor!
Ingredients
Scale
1/2 lb. (8 oz.) uncooked pasta (I used linguine)
1/2 lb. (about 8 strips) uncooked bacon, diced
1/2 lb. (8 oz.) fresh aspagarus, ends trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup dry white wine (or you can double this if you’d like)
1/2 cup grated or flaked Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Cook the pasta in a large pot of generously-salted water al dente according to package instructions.
Meanwhile, add bacon to a medium saute pan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until crispy. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add asparagus to the pan and saute in the bacon grease for about 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cooked. Remove asparagus with a slotted spoon, and set aside with the bacon. Slowly add the white wine to the pan, and scape the bottom of the pan with a spoon to deglaze the pan and pick up all of those yummy brown bits. Continue cooking for 5 minutes, or until the wine has reduced by about half.
When the pasta is cooked, drain it. Then add the pasta, asparagus, bacon and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese to the saute pan, and toss until combined. Sprinkle pasta with the remaining Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.
*If the pasta seems too dry, add in 1/4 cup of the pasta water after adding in the asparagus and bacon and toss to combine.
Thank you for the recipe! This is one of my absolute favorite pasta recipe! Love the recipe as written, but I add the juice of a lemon after the wine is reduced, also I add some sundried tomatoes (from Trader Joe’s dried, not in oil or water) Perfection!
Thank you for this recipe. I forgot all about pulling something from the freezer for dinner, and found not so many choices when I looked anyway. This was perfect for my husband and me. Since we don’t care for wine in our food, I went the chicken broth route. All gone, no leftovers!!
Really delicious, it’s a keeper for sure. So satisfying and so easy to put together!! Had fresh tomatoes from the garden given to me and they were crying to be used in just such a dish…it worked beautifully. Thank you so much, you made me look like a pro…..
Amy —
I should have read the comments that everyone else added more ingredients to this pasta. Made as its written it doesn’t have much flavor.
This is a wonderful recipe that we’ve made numerous times. It’s easy to make and has a great combination of flavors. We found that spaghetti didn’t mix thoroughly with the other ingredients so we use smaller pasta such as “bow ties”. The other change we made that really kicks up the flavor is to add about a 1/2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes when adding the bacon and asparagus back to the pan. All in all this is a family favorite!
So Good! Hate to be one of those who rates the recipe and makes all kinds of changes so will confess that I added garlic and the sun dried tomatoes as suggested by others. We loved it, will be added to the rotation.
Thank you!
This is a great recipe that we make regularly. We use penne or some other smaller pasta because it mixes well. We also add about 1/4 cup of diced sun-dried tomatoes when we add the wine.
Since I came across your recipe 5 years ago, This is hands down one of my family’s top five favorite recipes. And everyone who visits requests I make it while they’re here. And if I double or triple the batch it’s still all gone at the end. I’ll add baby bella mushrooms or pine nuts if I have them but it’s not necessary because it’s perfect as is. A-Maz-ing. Thanks for this.
I think it would be helpful to insert “reserve about half cup pasta water “before you say drain it. I know we should be reading the recipe completely before hand but sometimes I don’t and it helps to have that there.
Thank you for the recipe! This is one of my absolute favorite pasta recipe! Love the recipe as written, but I add the juice of a lemon after the wine is reduced, also I add some sundried tomatoes (from Trader Joe’s dried, not in oil or water) Perfection!
YUM. Delicious dish, bookmarked. I blanched the asparagus and used the same water to cook the pasta.
Fantastic! I added mushroom and garlic with the asparagus. My family loved it.
Try adding homemade basil pesto!
Thank you for this recipe. I forgot all about pulling something from the freezer for dinner, and found not so many choices when I looked anyway. This was perfect for my husband and me. Since we don’t care for wine in our food, I went the chicken broth route. All gone, no leftovers!!
Really delicious, it’s a keeper for sure. So satisfying and so easy to put together!! Had fresh tomatoes from the garden given to me and they were crying to be used in just such a dish…it worked beautifully. Thank you so much, you made me look like a pro…..
I should have read the comments that everyone else added more ingredients to this pasta. Made as its written it doesn’t have much flavor.
It was amazing! I added some cherry tomatoes and a bit of garlic, and the pasta’s been a huge success!
Thank you so much!
This is a wonderful recipe that we’ve made numerous times. It’s easy to make and has a great combination of flavors. We found that spaghetti didn’t mix thoroughly with the other ingredients so we use smaller pasta such as “bow ties”. The other change we made that really kicks up the flavor is to add about a 1/2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes when adding the bacon and asparagus back to the pan. All in all this is a family favorite!
This was SO good. I substituted parmesan for blue cheese. I should have paid more attention to cutting the bacon before cooking, but you learn!
So Good! Hate to be one of those who rates the recipe and makes all kinds of changes so will confess that I added garlic and the sun dried tomatoes as suggested by others. We loved it, will be added to the rotation.
Thank you!
This is a great recipe that we make regularly. We use penne or some other smaller pasta because it mixes well. We also add about 1/4 cup of diced sun-dried tomatoes when we add the wine.
Since I came across your recipe 5 years ago, This is hands down one of my family’s top five favorite recipes. And everyone who visits requests I make it while they’re here. And if I double or triple the batch it’s still all gone at the end. I’ll add baby bella mushrooms or pine nuts if I have them but it’s not necessary because it’s perfect as is. A-Maz-ing. Thanks for this.
I think it would be helpful to insert “reserve about half cup pasta water “before you say drain it. I know we should be reading the recipe completely before hand but sometimes I don’t and it helps to have that there.
I’m going to add shrimp to this as well for e tea protein. Sounds delicious.
I used pancetta instead of bacon, and air fried the asparagus so it would be crispy. Delicious!