A healthy tagliatelle butternut squash carbonara with creme fraiche, crispy bacon, roasted butternut squash, roast peppers and sliced olives coated in a parmesan, pine nut and sage creme fraiche sauce. The carbonara is served with a sprinkle of parsley and crispy garlic bread.
Pasta
Bread
This simple roast butternut and bacon pasta dish is simple to make and tastes amazing, the delicious crème fraiche sauce makes an ideal coating for the soft tagliatelle pasta
Peel and cut the butternut into cubes and toss in a little oil with the garlic and chilli flakes, roast in the oven until crisp, caramelised. Pop the tagliatelle into boiling water and cook till al dente. Cut the bacon into squares and cook till crisp and golden brown, add the sliced red peppers and cook till soft. Add the chopped olive, and the roasted butternut to the pan stir to combine the ingredients.
Add the pine nuts, grated parmesan and crème fraiche to make the pasta sauce. Add the cooked pasta stir and stir, serve with garlic bread or crusty rolls and a sprinkle of parsley.
This dish is perfect all year round, but we tend to serve it in the autumn or winter, it is healthier than a traditional carbonara as the cream sauce us made with crème fraiche. Its ideal for a quick evening meal, as its simple to cook, if you have veggies coming to dinner just leave out the bacon.
Who will love this recipe?
The whole family will love this dish, and its great for a busy worknight dinner if you have veggies coming to dinner just leave out the bacon as the recipe works just as well without it
Flavour profile
This dish has a delicious smoky quality from the roast butternuts and bacon, the cream fraiche and sage add freshness to the dish. And there is a hint of heat from the chilli flakes
This dish is a meal in one so doesn’t really need a side dish, but you can serve it with crusty bread or garlic bread if you want to
The perfect combination of bacon and butternut squash makes a delicious pasta meal, the star ingredients are the chilli and garlic adding flavour and spice. the creamy creme fraiche gives an extra healthy kick to the dish.
Butternut squash - butternut squash has a subtle nutty taste, roasting then add great texture to the dish
Tagliatelle - this pasta is perfect for the dish we use a plain pasta but this would work just as well with a wholemeal or spinach pasta
Bacon – this recipe uses a smoked bacon to add a smoky tinge to the dish, you can use unsmoked bacon just make sure you cook till crisp as this add real texture to the dish
Olives – the black olives add a deep salt taste to the dish and are optional if you are cooking for veggies and so omitting the bacon these are essential in the dish
Red bell peppers, these compliment the butternut perfectly and add to the freshness
Crème fraiche – add a real freshness to the dish and form the base of the cream sauce
Other flavouring, garlic and parmesan add umami flavours, sage adds a warm freshness, pine nuts add crunch and nuttiness and the chilli flakes add heat
A traditional Italian pasta dish made with eggs, cream, bacon and a hard cheese such as parmesan or pecorino. Our carbonara is a healthy version of this where the eggs and cream have been replaced with creme fraiche
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