Tagliatelle with crispy bacon, goats' cheese & artichokes

Method

1. Clean the artichokes by removing the harder outer leaves and the inner 'beard' to finally obtain artichoke hearts.
2. Slice them finely and let them sit in lemon water to prevent them from turning black.
3. Dice the bacon, then peel and slice the shallot.
4. Heat a pan, add the extra virgin olive oil, sauté the shallot and cook the sliced artichokes.
5. As soon as the artichokes get tender, add the sliced bacon, some sage leaves and allow the flavour to develop for around 1 minute. Set aside.
6. Cook the Tagliatelle in plenty of boiling salted water.
7. Drain the pasta al dente and toss in the pan with the artichokes and the goats’ cheese, adding a little of the cooking water if necessary, just to make sure that the dressing is creamy and well distributed.
8. Serve.

Chef's tip

The artichoke stem is edible too!! All you need to do is peel it and slice it finely. Feel free to cook it together with the artichoke hearts, it tastes just as divine! If you like it spicy, you can top off this dish with a nice pinch of freshly ground black pepper just right before serving it, too.

Serving suggestion

Goes well with vegetable and meat side-dishes. A cheese selection is also a good choice.

Wine selection

Dolcetto, Chianti classico.

Family tip

We recommend using 1 litre of water for every 100 g of pasta.

Dish history

A typical cold-season vegetable, the best time of the year to prepare artichokes is definitely from November to May. With this recipe we want to give you one more idea on how to enjoy them! This dish will make a quick, really fanciful, starter: the Tagliatelle pasta is dressed with a creamy cheese sauce and with the sautéed, savoury artichokes and bacon. In case you want to make this recipe suitable for vegetarians, just replace the diced bacon with sliced (or minced), roasted almonds! Enjoy hot or lukewarm.