Fettuccine Carbonara aka Penne Carbonara

This recipe was by far a keeper. My husband and I loved it. Let's just say he only got 1 bowl of this delicious goodness, and I ate 3 bowls! (Not in the same day, of course!)

The recipe was inspired by All Recipes Bertoilli Fettuccine Carbonara, however, I actually used a different brand of sauce. I had to stick to the lightest version of Alfredo sauce that I could find, and at the local store, Ragu was the lightest I found. I also used penne pasta instead of fettuccine, since that is what I had in my pantry.

The ingredients I used for this dish:

1 16oz Box of Penne Pasta

1 Tbsp of Butter

1 Cup of Frozen Peas

4 Strips of Cooked, Crumbled Bacon
1 16oz Jar of Light Ragu Alfredo Sauce

1 Tbsp of Minced Onion

1 Tsp of Garlic Salt or to Taste

I cooked the penne pasta as directed on the box, but I added 1 Tbsp of butter to the boiling pasta. I added in the 1 cup of peas about 3-5 minutes before the noodles were done. Once the noodles and peas were cooked, I drained the dish and set aside. Meanwhile, I cooked the bacon in a skillet until crispy and then crumbled it into small pieces. I also used a paper towel to get all the excess grease off the bacon. If you want to make it even more easy, just buy the precooked bacon crumbles in the grocery store next to the salad toppings.

I put the drained pasta and peas back into the stock pot, then I added the bacon, Alfredo sauce, onion, and garlic salt. Stir it well, and you have dinner! I topped ours with a little bit of mozzarella cheese as well. Adding a small side salad and garlic bread works well with this meal.

I really loved the frozen peas. I have read that using canned peas works as well, but the frozen peas were more crisp instead of being mushy like the canned peas would have been.

This will be a staple in our household as we all loved it even my son who likes to throw the food rather than eat it! He gobbled it up too.