Green Pea Tagliatelle with Bacon

I'm always on the lookout for quick things that can be whipped up in an instant - perfect weekday meals. We often get home fairly late, and then we're most definitely not in the mood to go the store. For those days, it's really convenient to use ingredients out of the freezer - and this is such a meal. Totally no need to thaw anything - and I always have bacon, peas and green beans in my freezer. I used Swedish Västerbotten cheese, but if you don't have that, Pecorino or Parmesan would be awesome as well.

And, of course, you can definitely double the recipe.

Green Pea Tagliatelle with Bacon
Serves 2

200 g tagliatelle
100 g haricot verts (green beans, frozen are fine)
70 g bacon, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1-200 ml water from the pasta
300 ml (that's about 1.2 cups) green peas (frozen are fine)
1/2 lemon, both juice and zest
salt, black pepper
handful of shredded cheese (Västerbottensost, Parmesan or Pecorino.)

Boil the pasta in lightly salted water. Add the haricot verts when there's about 3 minutes left of the cooking time.

Get your onion and garlic ready. Dice the bacon and fry until crispy. Remove from the pan and let it drain off on some paper towels. Pour out any excess bacon fat (or not) and then fry the onions and garlic on low heat until softened. Add the olive oil and the peas. Add about 100 ml of cooking water from the pasta, and let it simmer for a few minutes.

Use an immersion blender (or a regular one) to mix the sauce until smooth. Add lemon juice and lemon zest, and season with salt and pepper. You can save some of the zest for decoration, if you'd prefer.

Drain the pasta and beans - reserve the water- and stir with half of the sauce. You might want to add a bit of that water now, to make it creamier. Top each serving with more sauce, the crispy bacon, extra lemon zest and a small handful of cheese.

Recipe in Swedish:
Tagliatelle med grön ärtkräm och bacon