Starting Your Western Cuisine Journey with Creamy Bacon and Mushroom Pasta

01

When hosting friends at home, I occasionally serve pasta as the main course. As long as all the ingredients are prepped, it’s really no harder than making instant noodles, and the success rate is high. It’s a great beginner recipe for learning Western cooking.

Now, let’s list the ingredients. The list may look a bit long, but most of these are staples in Western kitchens, so you can buy some and keep them in stock.

For 2–3 servings, the must‑have items are:
about 200g of #5 spaghetti, 5 white mushrooms, 3 slices of bacon, about 120ml of heavy cream, about 10g of butter, and a little black pepper.

If you want to keep it simple, the above ingredients are enough to make a decent‑tasting pasta.

But if you want to take this dish to the next level, I strongly recommend adding these three extras:
about 20ml of white wine, a little grated Parmesan cheese, and 3–4 fresh basil leaves.

All these ingredients are available online, but where do you buy fresh basil?
Good question – I grow my own.

02

Before you start, have everything prepared to avoid a last‑minute rush.

Slice the bacon, mushrooms, and chop the basil.

Take out the heavy cream and butter, and pour the wine into a small bowl.

For those who are slower at multitasking, I suggest making the sauce first.
Because once the pasta is cooked, it tends to stick together. The sauce involves more steps, so to avoid being caught off guard, it’s better to prepare the sauce beforehand. Then, when the pasta is done, drain it well, quickly toss it with the sauce, and finish over low heat to reduce.
If you prefer to cook the pasta first, that’s fine too – just toss it with a drizzle of olive oil after draining to prevent sticking.

03

For the sauce, step one: fry the bacon and mushrooms. Start with high heat for the bacon – it gets nicely crispy that way.

Then turn down to low heat and fry until the surface is slightly browned.

Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté until they start releasing their juices.

Step two: make the cream sauce.
After the bacon and mushrooms are cooked, drop in a small knob of butter and let it melt over low heat to emulsify.
Why not fry the bacon and mushrooms directly in butter from the start? Because over high heat, the butter would burn and turn bitter before the bacon gets that lovely crispness, so it’s better to add the butter later.

Once the butter is melted, pour in the heavy cream and the wine.

Add a little freshly ground black pepper, and cook until the sauce thickens slightly, then remove from heat.
Set the sauce aside in a bowl.

04

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add about 2 teaspoons of salt, and cook the spaghetti – it usually takes about 8 minutes.
How do you know when it’s done?
The pasta will turn pale and tender; if you’re not sure, just take a strand and taste it.

When the pasta is perfectly cooked, drain it well. Add the chopped basil to the sauce pan, then toss in the pasta and mix well over low heat to reduce the sauce.
Don’t use too high a heat, or it will burn and the basil will turn dark and unappealing.

Plate the pasta, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese, and add a little more black pepper. And there you have it – a simple yet impressive creamy bacon and mushroom pasta.

If you don’t have basil at home, you can use some mild parsley flakes – the green colour makes it look much nicer, though you’ll miss that basil aroma.

For those who don’t have white wine or heavy cream at home, you can skip the wine – it still tastes great. But I do recommend trying it with wine when you get the chance; it really enhances the flavour. If you truly don’t have cream, milk can be a substitute – in that case, use a little more butter to give a rich, milky aroma. Still, it’s best to get all the ingredients and follow the original recipe as closely as possible.