Bacon and chicken tagliatelle with cannellini beans
Crisp bacon, seared chicken, a quick tomato sauce and cannellini beans that turn a pasta night into a proper meal. Parmesan grated over at the table.
Notable for: fibre, antioxidants, calcium
Ingredients
- 120 gstreaky bacon, chopped
- 400 gtagliatelle
- 800 gcannellini beans in brine, 2 cans, drained
- 800 gchopped tomatoes, 2 cans
- 200 gbrown onions, fine dice
- 15 gcrushed garlic
- 40 ggrated parmesan, grated
- 5 gdried mixed herbs
- 10 mlolive oil
- 350 gchicken breast
Method
Put the pasta water on to boil.
Heat the oil in a wide pan, add the bacon, and cook it over medium-high heat until crisp and the fat has rendered, about 6 minutes. Lift it out and set aside.
Add the chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces, to the same pan and cook in the bacon fat for 5 to 6 minutes until browned through.
Add the onion to the same pan and cook it for 5 minutes until soft.
Add the garlic and herbs for 30 seconds, then add the tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes until it thickens.
Add the cannellini beans and the bacon back in for the last 5 minutes, stirring them through gently so some break down and some stay whole.
Cook the tagliatelle a minute short of the packet time, then finish it in the sauce with a ladle of its cooking water, and grate the parmesan over at the table.
Cook the onion in the bacon fat
Don't drain the pan after the bacon comes out. The rendered fat is where the flavour lives, and cooking the onion in it instead of fresh oil is most of the difference between this and a plain tomato pasta.
Storage
Keeps four days in the fridge and freezes well without the pasta.
Cook fresh tagliatelle when you come back to a frozen portion of sauce.
Cost per serving is indicative, based on New Zealand supermarket prices as at September 2026. Batch prices your own week against your own store on the day. Nutrition figures, including calories, are estimates rather than label readings, so always check the packet if you have an allergy. "Notable for" reflects well-established qualities of the ingredients used, not a lab measurement of this exact dish.