Oh gosh, just look at this pasta dish! Perfectly al dente cooked spaghetti tossed with pink rhubarb, sweet plum, creamy sauce and salty bacon gives a bright range of flavours and textures. You simply have to give it a try. It might be your new favourite mid-week meal.
Pasta dishes are the best decision on what to cook when you are either too lazy to cook or you don’t have much time. Firstly, it is quick to prepare, you can enjoy it cold or warm and pair it with anything you fancy most.
You might also like these pasta ideas: tagliatelle with mortadella ragu, a fun camembert-pear farfalle pasta, a cold prosciutto melon spaghetti, a summer garlic dill weed pasta, a classic lasagne al forno or baked half rigatoni with mozzarella and beef. Oh, I love pasta of any form and size.
The best part of this dish is, that the combination of ingredients is quite unique. Bacon, sweet plums, sour rhubarb, cream cheese, lemon and pasta. Can you see all of it in a tasty dish? Yes. Yes. Rhubarb is a perfect pairing with plum and bacon. And pasta, like I just said, pairs with anything. Wink.
I am pretty sure, you’ve tried rhubarb baked into a pie or cooked into a jam before. But, have you ever tried it in a savoury dish? It might sound new to you, but it is a delicious combination. And, it is so easy and it goes together so quickly. In fact, it takes only the time for the pasta to cook. That’s like 8-10 minutes. Which makes it a great midweek meal.
Is it a fruit or vegetable?
Rhubarb is fleshy, edible, red to pink, and tinged with pale green stalks that you can enjoy either cooked, baked or raw. I am sure you’ve seen them before. They almost look like celery stalks but are more colourful. Also, rhubarb, botanically talking, is a vegetable, but it is treated as a fruit. And the reason why is because of its sour flavour, it is generally sweetened with sugar for use in desserts and jams.
While the stalks are perfectly edible, the leaves aren’t. Enjoy the stalks but avoid the leaves. Cut them off and discard them as they contain so-called oxalic acid. Work the stalks into a typical rhubarb pie and rhubarb jam. I am pretty sure you know them both. But rhubarb is much more than that. You can use it in soups, sauces, tarts, cakes, crumbles, cocktails and even salads.
Besides looking gorgeous and being extremely versatile, it’s healthy, too. Rhubarb is low in calories, but rich in vitamin K and C, potassium, dietary fiber and calcium.
Tips
Rhubarb tends to taste sour and that wouldn’t be such a lovely combo with pasta. Therefore, I combined it with sweet fresh plums. By adding plums, I also reduced the amount of sugar in this recipe.
In many recipes, that I’ve read, I noticed the rhubarb is being peeled. There is one thing to know about peeling rhubarb. When the stalks tend to get tough, with stringy ribs and fibrous, it is better to peel them.
On the other hand, the peak-season rhubarb doesn’t require peeling. And, besides, they will keep that lovely red-pink colour, so typical for rhubarb. I love it. Its colours are just amazing.
Since I was looking to keep the chunks in their shape but at the same time, get tender, I cut the rhubarb into bite-sized chunks and cooked it only for a minute or two. Try not to overcook it or it will become all mushy.
Ingredients for two portions of rhubarb bacon spaghetti:
- 1-2 rhubarb stalks
- 200 g spaghetti
- 120 g bacon cubes
- olive oil
- 2 round fresh plums (black or Santa Rosa)
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 70 g cream cheese
- 50 ml whipping cream
- lemon zest
- salt
- fresh parsley (garnish)
To begin, wash and trim the rhubarb stalks. Cut them into 2 cm large pieces and place them aside. Wash, pit and cut the plums into smaller chunks.
In a medium pot, put some water to boil. Add the spaghetti and cook for 7-8 minutes or until al dente.
Put the rhubarb, plums, some water and sugar into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook for 1 minute or until the rhubarb gets tender but still keeps its shape. Remove the pan from the heat.
In a larger frying pan with higher sides, add the bacon and cook until crispy. Transfer the bacon to the rhubarb, but keep the pan. In the pan, stir the cream cheese, and cream and combine with a ladle of pasta water. Cook, with continuous stirring, for a couple of minutes.
Afterwards, add the cooked spaghetti, bacon, rhubarb and plum to the pan, season to taste and toss to combine.
Finally, divide the rhubarb bacon spaghetti between two plates, grate some lemon zest on top and garnish with fresh parsley.
Enjoy.
