#ewew cooks Fettuccine Aglio Olio with Bacon & Mushrooms

The Spaghetti Aglio Olio that phonghongbakes made recently made me drool and I knew I had to make it too. Probably one of the most common pasta dishes eaten around the world, Spaghetti Aglio Olio is basically spaghetti cooked with garlic and oil (aglio e olio).  

It's my family's most loved choice of pasta dish when dining out and also my beloved preference when cooking it at home just because it's the simplest to make.

It's simply made by sauteeing sliced garlic in olive oil.  Sometimes red pepper flakes and chopped parsley are added into the mix.

I'm not sure if anyone makes aglio olio with fettuccine (coz it's usually made with spaghetti), but I didn't have any spaghetti in my pantry, so fettuccine will have to do.

It's a simple recipe to whip up...you just need 4 cloves of garlic, red pepper flakes (which I had some left courtesy of Mikey's Pizza) and olive oil for the aglio olio.  But I need something more, of course....3 slices of pork bacon and 8 mushrooms.

I used a combination of white and brown button mushrooms (the brown ones are usually slightly more expensive).  The mushrooms were on promotion, so I managed to get them at around RM8 a box this time.  It might seem expensive but I managed to use them in three separate meals, so I think it's alright.

To prep your ingredients, simply slice the garlic cloves and chop up the bacon.  I like to quarter my mushrooms (instead of slicing them to thin pieces) as I like my mushrooms chunkier and find them juicier this way too.   But since these mushroom caps were quite big, I had to cut each into 6 pieces.

First thing is to throw the bacon pieces into a non-stick pan (without oil) and fry till crisp.  When I was chopping up the bacon, I suddenly became somewhat of a cheapskate and chopped up two pieces instead of three.  But after I fried the 2 pcs of bacon, I realised it wasn't quite enough.

So, I had to refry one additional piece...argh, more work.....well, that's the price you have to pay for being a cheapskate.  This plate shows crisp bacon bits from 3 slices of bacon.

With the skyrocketting prices of bacon these days, I'm sure you can understand why...RM25.38 got me only 9 pcs of bacon! O_O

I had already used up 5 pcs in an earlier meal...that meant I had 4 pcs left and I wanted to freeze the balance 2 pcs.  I thought I could at least make something out of 2 pcs of bacon on another day.  Now I have one miserable piece left in my freezer....which can't do squat! >_<

Next is to fry the garlic slices (till crisp) and mushrooms (till soft) in leftover bacon oil before adding your pasta of choice (fettuccine in this case).  I cooked my pasta in two batches (so what you see here is half the mushrooms and garlic).

You may want to undercook your pasta slightly since you'll need to spoon some of the pasta water into your pasta to bring everything together.  Toss in the chilli flakes and bacon crisps when you're almost done (add chopped parsley if you have).

This is my slightly unconventional Fettuccine Aglio Olio with Bacon & Mushrooms that's usually done with spaghetti :)  For those who don't like to eat pasta with any sauce, aglio olio is probably the best way to go.

Bacon, mushrooms, garlic.....what's not to like, right?  It could certainly do with more garlic though.  The next time, I'll double the amount of garlic...oh yeah!

I also brought the heat by putting in quite a fair amount of red pepper flakes...I like it hot (plus the noodles were thick, so it needed a lot more heat)! ;)

But if I were to cook this again, I'd probably won't choose to do it with fettuccine as the noodles are quite thick (like tagliatelle)...and work better with sauce (like in a beef ragu or a tomato-based meat sauce). Spaghetti or angel hair pasta...even linguine would be a better choice! ;)

The ingredients are good for three portions (or two very hungry people).