Orecchiette with Pancetta and Peas

Description

It’s time again to bury our faces into a bowl of creamy and delicious pasta!  Orecchiette with Pancetta and Peas is a meal that I will unapologetically carb load on time after time.  Before getting into the details of this recipe, I want to talk about the pasta shape for this dish.  Yes, you could use a long twirly noodle or hollow tube type of pasta, but nothing, and I mean nothing holds a pea more elegantly than a piece of Orecchiette, which makes for the most perfect bite.  This recipe starts by rendering off pancetta until golden brown, it’s like using bacon’s more sophisticated cousin.  Once your pancetta is golden and rendered, you’ll work on your aromatics like shallot, garlic, herbs, and spices. After your aromatics are perfectly fragrant, you can deglaze your pan with some white wine and let that reduce to almost nothing.  Top your aromatics off with your cream and pancetta and your sauce is nearly done.  By the time your sauce is nearly finished, your pasta should be cooked through.  Save a cup of your pasta water,  and you can drain your Orecchiette.  Add your pasta to your sauce along with your freshly grated parmesan and ½ cup of pasta water and it’s done!  When I add pasta water to my dish, I like to start with 1/4 cup and add more by the tablespoon full.  Pasta can be very tricky and may look soggy and over-watered one minute, and the next it can look too dry.  If you want to make sure you’re not about to serve spackle to your family, wait about 3-5 minutes before serving to see if your pasta needs any extra water, just my two cents. I like to serve this in a big pretty dish with some extra parmesan grated on top and some fresh herbs if I happen to have some on hand.  This dish is exactly what I look for when I’m in the mood for pasta, and it helps that this is one of my family’s favorite pasta recipes too, in fact it’s usually packed in thermoses for lunch the next day!  This is a great meal to add to your dinner rotation that only takes a handful of steps, but results in the most luxurious flavors.  Speaking of luxurious, did you know about that time I had the most unluxurious experience at a day spa?  My husband and I decided to get a couples massage for our wedding anniversary, something we’ve never done before, mind you.  We had a coupon for a spa in town and made an appointment.  On the day of our anniversary, we checked in and proceeded to our separate changing rooms where we got into our puffy robes and waited for the spa employee to come and guide us to our room.  Moments later, a kind lady knocked on my door and handed me a blindfold. I thought it was a tad strange but went along with her request.  We got our massages which were incredibly relaxing and much needed.  At the end of the experience, they had us turn to face each other, still blindfolded and hold hands.  Something felt off in my husband's hands, but I just chalked it up to the euphoria I was feeling.  The blindfold was removed and I was met face to face with a stranger! We both gasped in horror as we heard a shrill scream and curse words coming from the room next to us.  The spa employee had gotten us and another couple mixed up!  We scrambled back to our dressing rooms and found ourselves to be horrified and unbelievably amused.  After the spa issued a prolonged apology and a large stack of free vouchers, we left the salon in which we would never ever return to.  That night we took our family out for our anniversary dinner and told our kids about our misadventures at the salon over a delicious pasta dinner of Orecchiette with Pancetta and Peas.