Hay hay it’s Donna Day!

I figured that this month would be a great time to participate in the Hay Hay it’s Donna Day food blogger event because 1) I had all the ingredients and 2) it’s a really quick dish to prepare, key for me in this crazy-for-teachers month of November. You can read more about the event (organised by the fabulously talented Chez Us) here. October’s event was hosted by Jo of Have Fork Will Travel.

Hay Hay its Donna Day

The recipe: Creamy pancetta and roasted garlic pasta
Serve 4
(donna hay magazine issue 38)

roasted garlic

2 heads of garlic

1 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 180C/fan 160C/355F.
Cut off the tops of the garlic heads so the cloves are just showing. Drizzle the garlic with olive oil and wrap in aluminium foil. Place on a baking tray and cook for 45 minutes or until soft. Set aside to cool slightly before peeling off the skins*. Place cloves in a bowl and mash with the back of a fork.




*The garlic will be so soft and jammy that you’ll be able to press the flesh out by gently squeezing the cloves between your fingers, or gently lift each clove out with a skewer.


400g dried or fresh pappardelle pasta

2 teaspoons olive oil

300g piece mild pancetta, chopped

1 head roasted garlic, mashed

½ teaspoon dried chili flakes

125ml pouring cream

sea salt and cracked black pepper

1 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

finely grated parmesan, to serve (I actually just roughly grated the cheese)

Cook the pasta in a saucepan of salted, boiling water until al dente (10-12 minutes for dried or 3-5 minutes for fresh pasta). Drain and keep warm. (I used this awesome porcini mushroom pasta brought back from Italy for us by a friend):


Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook for 2-3 minutes or until browned. Remove from the heat and add garlic, chili, cream, salt and pepper and stir to combine.


Add the warm pasta* with the parsley and parmesan and toss to coat.


*the heat from the pasta will thicken the sauce


This was a great dish – apart from the 45 minutes of roasting garlic, it took about 30 minutes start to finish. A fabulous weeknight standby! We used some of our second round of home-cured pancetta and bacon and Cleo was very interested in the unveiling of the pancetta:


(she didn’t get any!)

24 thoughts on “Hay hay it’s Donna Day!”

  1. Oh. How. I . Love. Roasted. Garlic.

    I am totally going to make a dish with Roasted Garlic this week.
    Thanks for reminding me…MUAH!

    Reply
  2. Outstanding dish. But anything with roasted garlic normally rates high.

    Our home-made bacon and pancetta were divine – as was the icnredibly pasta Barry brought us from italy.

    Mmmm.

    We paired it with a slightly robust Spanish Tempranillo from Penedes Bajo. While a cream sauce, I thought this would match the spice and salt of the pancetta better than a white. (And did not have anything oaky in the fridge anyway.)

    Reply
  3. Perfect dish for colder weather! I love creamy pasta dishes, especially with pancetta and garlic. Yum! I'm going to dream about this when I go to sleep tonight for sure!

    Reply
  4. Roasted garlic = heaven! Looks delicious.. poor Cleo! Us readers only get to see the food and not eat it, she has to see it AND smell it and still not eat it! 😀

    Reply
  5. You know, I love roasted garlic, and I never think to make it! Yum! I'm totally thinking I'm roasting some to put in polenta tomorrow.

    Reply
  6. Yum! I absolutely love Donna Hay. Her recipes use very few ingredients and are always so tasty. Her Sticky Thai Chicken is a frequent meal at our house.

    Reply
  7. Yum yucky – get right on that – you will not regret it!

    Miranda – you're welcome

    Divina – that's why it's so great!

    Simply Life – yep and the garlic was even more potent today!!!

    Neil – glad you liked it!

    Tokyo terrace – I loved how LITTLE cream there was in it but it still tasted so creamy!

    Conor – she's 10.8lbs of "poor black cat"!!

    5 Star – thanks so much!

    Tasty eats – mmmm polenta!

    Martha – I thought you would like this!

    Jessie – that's why we love it!

    Penny – I heart Donna!

    Reply
  8. Fantastic job! I love that you used mushroom pasta – I thought about scattering some truffles over but then changed my mind – next time!

    Thanks for playing with the HHDD event!!

    Reply
  9. I love the taste of sweet whole garlic heads! I'm dying to try out a recipe from her new book too 😀

    Reply
  10. Chez us – Mmmm – yes truffle oil would be great on that! I like the earthiness the mushroom pasta gave it.

    Lorraine – I love the smell of the house when you are roasting garlic!

    Pegasus – oh it was!

    Carolyn – Yes, now you all have me thinking of truffle oil…

    Reply
  11. Thanks for playing in the HHDD event. Be sure to head over to Jo's site to pick a winner who will be the host for the next HHDD.

    Reply
  12. I love roasted garlic so much, though haven’t cooked with it for a long time. Thanks for the reminder!

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Martha Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.