Bacon and Pea Ditalini

Looking for a quick and cozy dinner or a show-stopping side dish? This Bacon and Pea Ditalini is one of our go to recipes. It’s creamy and satisfying and ready to serve in less than 30 minutes.

• Perfect for busy nights: Ready in less than 30 and all made in one pan, it’s the perfect recipe when you’re looking for ease and comfort.
• Versatile: This pasta recipe can be served as a side dish or the main course. You can also add or subtract many ingredients per your liking. See the post below for more ideas.
• Made with pantry staples: Most of these ingredients are things that we usually have on hand. Again, you can make swap outs – no peas? Use chopped broccoli or asparagus. No bacon? use diced ham or pancetta.

Ingredients You’ll Need To Make Bacon and Pea Ditalini

Here’s the basics, but again, this pasta dish is really very versatile. Use what you have on hand and make it to your liking!

• Ditalini Pasta: A small, tubular pasta that works wonderfully in this recipe. The hollow center soaks up the cream sauce so you get a burst with every bite. Other shapes could include wagon wheels, orecchiette or fusilli or rotini.
• Bacon: Any bacon that you like. This adds a smoky flavor and a crisp texture since we’re cooking the bacon, removing it and then adding it back to the dish at the end. You can also use pancetta or for a milder flavor, try using diced ham.
• Onion: A sweet, yellow onion to add a depth of flavor. You can also swap out a shallot instead.
• Frozen Peas: We like the flavor and texture of frozen peas for this recipe, but you can use canned peas if that’s all you have on hand.
• Heavy Cream: Heavy cream works best since we’re not making a roux or using a thickener for this recipe. If you only have light cream or half and half, try thickening the cream with Wondra® flour.
• Parmesan Cheese: A good, nutty parmesan cheese works best for flavor, try to grate it yourself or get a good quality grated cheese from the store. Avoid shelf stable grated cheese because it lacks flavor.

• Cook the bacon in a large skillet until brown and crispy. Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate, leaving 1 tablespoon of the drippings in the skillet.

• Cook the onion in the same skillet with the drippings for 3-4 minutes until softened.

• Pour in heavy cream and season with salt and black pepper. Simmer the cream for 5 minutes to reduce and thicken. Add peas and parmesan cheese and stir to combine.

• Add cooked ditalini and cooked bacon to the skillet, stirring until mixed together.

• Taste for seasonings and adjust if needed, add a splash of cream if the sauce is too thick (or you can add a little of the starchy water that you used to cook the pasta in).

Variations

There are many different variations to this ditalini recipe. You can add to this recipe or swap out any ingredients that you don’t like or have on hand.

• Different vegetables: Try using chopped broccoli, zucchini, cut asparagus or spinach instead of peas – or you can add any of these vegetables to the pasta in addition to the peas.
• Different pasta: You can use any smaller shaped pasta, but we think ditalini works best. Try rotini, fusilli, wagon wheels or orecchiette.
• Swap out the bacon: If you don’t have bacon in the fridge, you can use pancetta or diced ham. You can even switch up the flavors and use cooked and crumbled Italian sausage instead.