Simple Bacon in Brown Butter Pasta - The Best Instant Noodles You Can Make at Home

It really perplexes me whenever I am queuing at a supermarket to pay, to see the people around me stocking up on cartons after cartons of instant mee in their trolleys.

Instant noodles has become the "go to" food for the majority of Singaporeans, it seems. And that is a bad sign. We have become so complacent when it comes to food and cooking that we are so willing to settle for cup noodles that we are seriously losing the ability to cook our own fresh food at home.

Beyond the cup noodles and instant mee, it has also come to my attention that most Singaporeans like to stock up on what I term "Farmland" foods, that is chicken nuggets, beef patties and such.

There are are food that have been kept alive by preservatives, and beyond the fact that they are actually quite tasteless when cooked, they are also no the freshest of meats you can procure. And that is never good.

As for pastas, Singaporeans have turned to bottled sauces to make their pastas. Same issue here, bottled sauces are also kept alive by tons of preservatives and the ingredients inside are never, never fresh either. So why bother?

After all, if you have to make a fresh plate of pasta, you still have to cook your pasta for at least 10 minutes, and you can actually make a fresh pasta sauce in the same amount of time. And probably cheaper too.

So today, I present to you my quickest way to make a delicious pasta without resorting to ridiculously bland bottled sauces, and it only makes use of a few ingredients.

First, cook the pasta of your choice. I would recommend either spaghetti or linguine and I opt for the latter in this instance.

The key about cooking boxed pasta is to cook it until it is al dente. And the best way is always to take a strand and test. Before it gets to the texture you want, remove it from the boiling water and run it under tap water for a few seconds and not too long.

That way, the pasta can continue to cook until it is fully al dente without being too undercooked. Another thing is, I hardly use oil in the water or salt either. The reason being, I always run them under water and that will separate the noodles, and salt is unncessary as the sauce is the key to flavoring the paste.

To make the sauce, for roughly 2 portions, take about 3 or 4 strips of streaky bacon and chop them in square pieces, not too fine as you want to have bite sized portions.

In a cold pan, saute the bacon pieces until the fat is extracted. Once the fat comes out, pour in a dash of white wine and let the alcohol burn off.

Once that is done, add in a large chunk of butter and let it foam up inside the pan. Season with some pepper as well. Add in a just enough chicken stock to form a syrupy glaze. Make sure you let the butter burn enough and also not to overburn the butter at the same time.

Once the stock has been emlusified into the butter, add in the cooked pasta and mixed well until the noodles are fully flavored the bacon and butter sauce. 

Finally add some freshly chopped spring onion for color and serve. Easy and simple in 10 minutes flat.

And delicious. Enjoy.