This is another easy pasta dish that can be pulled together in mere minutes. You can create the sauce in the time that it takes for you to heat the water and boil the pasta. This is a dish that I used to make when my children were small as at that time, my son was a picky eater but loved pasta in cream sauce.

When my kids were young, and I needed a quick, filling meal, I often would throw together a quick meal by cooking packaged tortellini, throw them into a sauce made with heated heavy cream, grated cheese, and peas. I ever had leftovers when making this dish.

This is my adult version of pasta alla panna as I added crispy pieces of diced guanciale, baby peas, and goat cheese, creating a dish the entire family will love. I used farfalle, or butterfly pasta in this version as it is another way to get kids to try this dish. What child wouldn’t want butterfly pasta?

I like to serve this dish with grated Parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper for the adults. Because many of the ingredients in this dish are salty to begin with, do not add additional salt until the dish has been completed. Guanciale is a type of Italian cured pork made from the cheeks of a pig, but if you cannot find it, pancetta or even bacon would work out okay.

I added a sprinkling of lightly toasted pine nuts as I like to add texture to my dishes and I have them in my kitchen, but you can certainly skip the pine nuts if you like.

Buon Appetito!
Deborah Mele