My dinner table

Last night was pasta night. Pasta is an - faithful for me, especially when I want to just throw something together. Here's what I threw together. I hope you'll see something new to add to your next pasta dish. I started with a few basics: A can of tomatoes, onion, garlic, and a little bit of pesto and penne pasta.This penne is a little bigger than the usual; they're called pennoni rigati. But pretty much any pasta would work for this type of dish. Then I usually add a couple flourishes. This time it's blue cheese and bacon. Any blue will do. (Excuse the rhyme.) This is Le Ciel de Charlevoix: It's a blue cheese that's firm but really creamy. I like it because it melts but you still get some chunks too. It gives this dish a creamy texture without using fatty whipping cream. If you can't find this blue, cambazola or bleubry are good substitutes. Pancetta: Italian style bacon that's been cured with dried herbs and salt. I bought a hunk of it but you can also buy it already sliced at the grocery store. I find a little goes a long way so I only used half of this piece. And just chopped it up. The last, but not least important, ingredient is a vegetable. (At this point in the meal prep, the words of Brian Wilson spring to mind¦ I'm gonna love my vegetables, I love you most of all, My favorite vege-table) Sometimes it's hard to pick a favourite but today mine is rapini. You can choose your whatever your favourite vegetable of the moment is: peppers, asparagus or broccoli. Rapini is a type of broccoli. It's more flavourful and even leans a bit to the bitter side. I just stirred it into the sauce to soften a little which also helps to mellow the bitter flavour. And voila. Here the whole kit and kaboodle. What are your favourite ingredients to add to pasta dinner?