Chef John's BLT Pasta

This is simply wonderful!! I too followed the directions exactly and found myself gobbling it up, which I usually don't do with meals I've cooked. My husband also went for seconds. My store didn't have the creme fraiche so I had to make my own. Super easy recipes online! I'm also a huge fan of BLT's, so that might have something to do with my love for this dish. Will make again

I made this with sour cream the first time and we really loved it. I added sun-dried tomatoes for a little more flavor. I wanted to try it with the creme fraiche, so I made it again. We preferred the tang the sour cream added for sure, so I'll be making it again and again but with the sour cream. I omitted the lemon as we didn't care for it in this dish.

This was just ok. Arugula is not my favorite and I should have known the kids wouldn't like it but wanted to follow the recipe exactly the first time. The arugula overwhelmed the dish in my opinion and it didn't resemble a BLT at all because of that. I think perhaps with spinach or kale this would be better.

That was so nice , so easy to make.

I made this tonight. It was pretty good, the only request being for more bacon. More bacon is good. The next time I’ll use a pound. As is my custom, I went through the comments looking for suggestions and found a few. Crème fraiche became sour cream. Ditalini pasta became Fred Mayer’s small stuff that was on sale two weeks ago. Argula became spinach. Maybe argula is finer chopped than spinach but four cups of chopped spinach just about overflowed my 12 inch by 1 ½ inch iron skillet. Next time I’ll cut back to three cups. I found a way to cut down on the mess from chopping spinach while at the same time getting it done faster and doing a better job. Having not ever seen a recipe requiring whole spinach leaves, I just chopped up the whole plastic container of Freddy’s baby spinach leaves using the scissor-like multi-bladed chopping tool that the boss cook bought on one of her Pampered Chef forays.

Very good combination of flavors. I used (1) 1lb. box of mini penne pasta, 1 lb of bacon. I doubled the rest of the ingredients other than the cream fraise, which I used the entire jar I had just made. This recipe is a keeper.

Would have been lovely if AllRecipes hadn't converted "two cups" of pasta to "16 oz" of pasta. Really, I'll learn to ignore what they put on the shopping list - and beware if you haven't already noticed that little "feature". Other than needing double everything because it was too much pasta, it was tasty.

I love this recipe and his other recipes as well.

This is really awesome, and quick and easy to boot. The boyfriend had three helpings and requested that I make it again soon. I followed the recipe exactly and wouldn't change a thing. I can't wait to try it with tomatoes from my garden. Definitely a winner! Thanks Chef John :)

I trimmed the fat on the bacon and cooked it without the oil. Used macaroni noodles since that's what I had and omitted the cayenne pepper. Used Chef John's recipe for crème fraiche but used 1 1/2 cup of it. After tossing it, I tasted it and it was missing something. I squeezed 1/2 lemon and that made a huge improvement. My husband loved it, my son not so much even though he's a fanatic of bacon. He didn't like the taste of arugula. I liked it. The arugula did over power the salad. The next time, I'm going to try fresh baby spinach and 1/2 the batch, except for the bacon, since it made a huge amount.

Easily my favorite recipe I've ever made. Used the Chef John creme fraiche recipe as well, have made this about ten times now and everyone is always blown away.

I made this recipe tonight but used mayonnaise (thinking of a BLT sandwich) with lemon juice and garlic as the dressing - less exotic but wonderful. Used regular tomatoes.

Thank you for a perfect recipe. Agi (from Budapest, Hungary)

Have made this twice now just as suggested without modification and it was EXCELLENT! Last night I made it and, after taking advantage of a sale of fresh, pre-cooked, shrimp (12-16 count), I added a pound of those lil darlins to the recipe after I had added the "creme fraiche". I followed the recipe steps, as directed, after that. WOW! You want to take this recipe to another level, even though it is already incredible, just add shrimp! Unbelieveable! Thanks John... this is one heck of recipe that we will include in our weekly rotation. P.S., I didn't have creme fraiche this time around so I substituted Fage Greek Yogurt. It is a great substitute if you didn't take the time, like I did, to make creme fraiche. ENJOY!

This was delicious! Great recipe! Didn't have the creme fraich so we substituted with heavy cream and it worked out great. Definitely going to be making this again!

The only problem is I can eat too much of this because it is so delicious. I made Chef John's creme fraiche ahead of time. I used a large beefsteak tomato chopped. I made a little more pasta to make it stretch and added an extra dollop of creme fraiche. I also used bow-tie pasta.

Husband and I really enjoyed this recipe. Arugula isn't a favorite of mine so I substituted kale which had been cooked for a short time in chicken broth to "tenderize" it and make it less bitter. It worked well, the dark green very colorful with the tomatoes. Cut the recipe in half and there were no leftovers (husband dislikes eating leftovers)

I used full fat Greek Yogurt in place of the creme fraiche and it was a hit.

This was really good! I forgot the Parmesan cheese, but it was still good. I also added a little over a teaspoon of Montreal steak seasoning instead of the salt and pepper.

wow, this was delicious. i didn't have creme fraiche, so i used yogurt - it was fine. i also didn't have any lemons, so i can only imagine how much brighter some lemon zest would make it. i might use sausage next time, just to mix it up.

Very good, and different! My wife said only a man could come up with this (?) but she did enjoy. Couldn't find the ditalini pasta so used cornetti, which sounded fancy but looked a lot like regular macaroni. I used campari tomatoes quartered, and had to cook them a lot longer than 1 minute to soften them up. Although I upped the recipe to 6 servings, I found the sauce needed just a tad more liquid. Will make again for sure!

Made this the other night and it was a big hit. Only made a couple of changes. First off I doubled the recipe because I was feeding a large hungry bunch. I used Tortiglioni pasta (large spiral tubes) Used kale rather than arugula (just because that's what I had in the fridge) and my grocery store was out of the creme fraiche so I substituted with sour cream and a spoonful of savoury garlic cream. Great warm from the stovetop or as a cold leftover the next day. Very happy with this recipe. A keeper for sure!

I loved this and my husband went crazy for it. He asked me to make it again the very next week! Try it, it's great!

This blew my mind! I'm sure it's best with creme fraiche or even sour cream, but I used greek yogurt to see if I could cut down on calories and it was still amazing (but careful not to cook the yogurt - it'll curdle)!

Turned out fantastic! Easy to follow directions! Couldn't go wrong.

I loved it as did my husband and middle son. My oldest (16) and youngest (12) didn't love it. Can't imagine why. It was fabulous and I can't imagine switching out the creme fraiche for anything else. Wonderful but quite fatty meal.

This is the first recipe that I have given 5 stars. This was so good.!!!!!!. I followed the recipe exactly. I had to make the crème fraiche with whipping cream and buttermilk.

Delicious. Made just as the recipe called for. Thumbs up from all four kids too!

Amazeballs!

This meal was fantastic! I made the recipe exactly the way it read except I forgot the cayenne. This was very tasty and sinful...

It's fun, simple and DELICIOUS! Perfect recipe for my 5 year old son to help. The hardest part was keeping him from eating all the tomatoes beforehand. :)

Fantastic dish, used baby spinach instead of arugula. The creme fraiche was supper easy to make. My daughter, who eats next to nothing, actually went back for three helpings. Can't wait to make this for friends, and more for me!!!

This is so good, seriously, delicious!! No tweaks required!!

I placed the dish on the table and my child ask, "What is it?'. I say "BLT pasta". One child blurts out, "I don't like BLT". Clearly, you don't know the goodness of a BLT sandwich. But after one fork full, it was bliss. I could see it. Consequently, I had to make a second batch. Even, the tomatoes disappeared.

We also went with the spinach substitute & loved the dish. It's in the dinner rotation.

My husband and son loves it. This is one of our favorite now. Made it several times.

YUM! This is one of my favorite recipes that I've found on this site so far! The dish is a little time consuming to make, but it's delicious and I never have leftovers!

Made this recipe tonite for dinner. It was excellent. The only change I made was instead of adding 2 cups of tomatoes, I only added one cup which was plenty. Will definitely be making again.

This is absolutely marvelous, I made it exactly as called for except cooking the tomato's. It was wonderful and will make it monthly.

Just made it tonight and it was good! I had to substitute with sour cream, baby spinach, grape cherries, and mini bow tie noodles because my grocery store didn't have the ingredients. So glad it still turned out good! Thankful in San Diego!

Excellent Chef John

I licked my plate! This was even better than I expected it to be.

The three men in my family really liked this, and that's how many it fed. Being a vegetarian, I didn't have any, so am rating it on their reaction. It was easy to prepare. I used sour cream.

Wow what a fantastic meal! Well done Chef John! Followed recipe and turned out great.

I used sour cream since I could not find crème fraiche. I also used tri-color rotini and spinach instead of arugula. My husband said it was a keeper. This recipe was very easy to cut in half for just the two of us.

I did like this very much - it's one of the better one-dish pasta recipes I've tried. The creme fraiche base for the sauce is very nice - I ended up supplementing creme fraiche with a couple spoons of sour cream because I didn't have enough creme fraiche, and I could taste both of them in the end result. IMO creme fraiche is much better in the recipe -- substituting sour cream would not be optimal. I also added some quartered salami slices and some halved black olives not called for by the recipe, and I cooked the pasta in part chicken broth part water to try to boost flavor. I reserved some pasta water and I needed that to keep the dish moist as I kept the pan on the heat long enough to wilt the spinach (I used spinach instead of arugula) and soften the tomatoes. I made the recipe 1-1/2x to feed a couple more people, and I had to leave the dish on longer than the recipe said to wilt the spinach and soften the tomatoes. Maybe that was just because there was more volume of food in the pan? Though I used my big Viking 13" saute pan - it should have been big enough. Anyway, this pasta dish has a very nice flavor. I especially liked the creme fraiche used as it was here. My kids liked the dish. Chef John, thank you for the recipe!

Loved it! I made it for myself because I know my husband isn't a huge tomato fan (I loveeeee tomato and arugula) but he actually loved it, too, and even said that I should make this a part of our rotation when we cook. So... I found this recipe right before I got off work, so I didn't have time to make the creme friche or whatever it's called, and unfortunately the grocery store didn't carry it, either.. I was scared, but decided to go ahead and use sour cream instead (I normally love sour foods, but I was afraid this would be a bit much). I LOVED it with sour cream. I can definitely see where someone might think it's too overpowering, especially if you don't like sour flavors, but it was mouthwatering to me and was like a crazy roller coaster of sour cream, tomato, and lemon zest. Oh, and I would add more lemon zest than what is listed in the recipe, and I used an arugula-spinach mix which was delightful.

Ollo there all you " foodies" . PLEASE, MAKE THIS! Soo, I'm the Brit, that is making one NEW Recipe a month, for me New Years Resolutions & all recipes will be from CHEF Johns' recipes. I've been cooking & baking since I was a wee one, so following recipes, & adding NEW ones is quite hard yes? This month APRIL was this recipe. Just follow it. No adding Limburger cheese, & sour cream instead of the ingredients this Chef says. NO saying , "OHHH I don't have this pasta, I'll use sweet potatoes instead." Follow the recipe . Cheers all. Bye now.

Add the lemon zest to the pan right before the creme fraiche. It can easily burn. Took only a moment for it to become fragrant. And I really recommend adding Parmesan at the same time you add the creme fraiche. It needed a little bolder taste. I also think this would be a wonderful dish with pancetta.

Yes yes yes, so much yes! Chef John does it again. Perfect dish, amazing balance of flavors. I went all organic with this one; highly recommended so that you get the best of each ingredient! Won't even cost you that much. The creme fraiche with the bacon/lemon/garlic was so good and smelled so delicious while cooking! I dare you not to steal a few pieces of bacon before it's fine! This would be the perfect date/ company at home meal. It's easy and your guests will delight in the heavenly aromas wafting from the kitchen. I will make this again and again. Thanks Chef!

Fantastic and so easy. Cut fat by using turkey bacon. Family approved!

This recipe is very, very good I will make it again. Now, I unfortunately did not have arugula at hand so I used baby spinach. The recipe came out delicious. It is also very satisfying. I ate the remaining sauce with crusty bread. This recipe will now be on my permanent repertoire and as an option to use leftover creme fraiche.

We loved this meal ,thank you Chef John.Changes made:I had no creme fraiche so I used sour cream,also used Italian multi colored Pasta "Hearts" so pretty but I would definitely used the pasta recommended next time for a more solid look.. we don't use Cayenne so I added a small amount of Fresh green Jalipeno Pepper.Sorry for the changes John but we cook with what we have at home right? Many thanks Mimi

Loved this recipe- so delicious and easy! Cooked the bacon in the oven and then proceeded with the recipe. The lemon and garlic really bring it to life. Will surely make again and again.

This was a big family hit! We're not big arugula fans so I used an arugula and spinach combination and no one complained. I added an extra pinch of cayenne pepper as it needed a bit more spice. Next time I would reserve a little of the pasta water to help smooth out the cream cheese (no Creme Fraiche). This is a great pasta for the family, especially those who like bacon.

this is an awesome easy recipe

It made a quick, easy, & affordable dinner that was restaurant quality. I substituted sour cream and an arugula/spinach mix, used 1lb bacon, and topped with Parmesan cheese and chives. Everyone loved it! I will definitely be adding this recipe to my dinner rotation.

Wow!! What a dish. Tonight was my second night making it and doubled the recipe and followed directions exactly (besides adding a bit of garlic powder with the S&P). Highly recommended!

This was one of the best salads ever! Even my husband enjoyed helping make it. We used our side burner on the gas grill and did everything outside - delish! One minor change was after reading previous reviews, we added the full lb. of bacon because we're bacon lovers. Thanks for sharing Chef John - love your recipes!

Family loved this recipe, or at least my modified version (based on what we had on hand): homemade yogurt instead of creme fraiche, macaroni instead of ditalini, kale instead of arugula, and asiago instead of parmesan.

fabulous!

I used 12 oz. of bacon, sour cream vs. creme fraiche and spinach vs. arugula. Added a splash of white wine and more than a tablespoon of Parmesan. It was much better than I expected it to be.

Very easy to make and has great flavor.

I followed the recipe and it was awesome!!

I have to say, this is as an old Southern grandfather used to say "something fine in this world." I made the mistake of not adding enough greens, but it will correct that next time.

I made this for my family last night. The recipe is easy to make and I didn't change a thing. Everyone raved about it! This dish delivers a wonderful bouquet of flavors from the lemon zest, garlic, bacon and tomatoes. Thanks Chef John, I'll be making this one on a regular basis. Todd R.

On the spur of the moment I invited a friend over for supper. No time to go to the store, so I use what I had. I had all the ingredients but the creme fraiche. But, I did have mayonnaise and a packet of Ranch Dressing. I followed the recipe on the package: 1 cup mayo, 1 cup milk and the packet of Ranch Dressing. I also had tomatoes that I diced. (No cherry tomatoes.) I used 1 pound of bacon, because it needed to be used! Other than that, I followed the recipe to the "T"! My friend was very pleased with the salad. She even took leftovers for her lunch, tomorrow. This is a recipe that I will use over-and-over. I will use creme fraiche when I have time to plan ahead. As good as it was, I'm sure this will raise it a notch! Thanks for the recipe! I also had some eggnog in the freezer that I needed to use, so I made eggnog muffins to go with the salad. To spread on the muffins, I made a whipped orange butter.(Whip 1 stick butter, 3 oz cream cheese, 1/3 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons grated orange rind and 1 tablespoon frozen concentrated orange juice.) I cleaned out a lot of ingredients and had a nice meal! A good bottle of wine didn't hurt!

I did not have creme fraiche, ditalini or arugula, so I substituted plain greek yogurt, a different small pasta, and spinach. The greek yogurt didn't hold up well like a creme fraiche would have. Will have to find another substitute. Also, I added chicken. Made a great main meal.

This was a new kind of recipe for me. I used elbow macaroni instead of diateli (I couldn't find it) and full-size tomatoes (not cherry). I didn't find creme fraiche, so I used Chef John's recipe to make it myself. I think the lemon zest was too strong, so if I make this again, I will leave that out.

I made this for my family of 6 tonight and everyone loved it; (however, my 3 year old picked out the cooked tomatoes.) I went a little heavier on the lemon zest and really heavy on the cheese - I topped the entire skillet with parmesan cheese :)

Yummy. Hubby, oldest and I liked it --- Edwin and Jocelyn loved it and gobbled up plates of it. They even asked to eat the left overs for breakfast.

This is a very nice salad as a main course. I used spinach. And I used 12 oz of bacon since that is how much was in the package. And I'm not sorry I used more! My store didn't have creme fraiche so I used sour cream and didn't use the lemon zest to compensate. I also opted to use the spinach and tomatoes fresh, meaning I didn't cook them at all. I layered the bowl with spinach added the pasta mixture and topped with tomatoes. Very pretty. Loved this dish !

Followed the recipe exactly except added a splash of chicken stock before tossing in the pasta for moistness. Don't forget cracked pepper and parm-reggiano!

This recipe is fast enough to make for a weeknight family meal and is soooo good. The grocery store didn't have creme fraiche last time I made it so I used light sour cream and it worked great. I like to squeeze half a lemon instead of using zest (personal flavor preference), and most importantly, just go ahead and use the whole pound of bacon. You won't regret it. ;)

I really like this recipe, but in general loosely follow recipes. I don’t measure, always add extra bacon, use a splash of lemon juice instead of rind, use some pasta water with sauce (I use sour cream and add a spoonful of bacon grease...and instead of adding it cold directly to the bacon I warm it in the microwave...in the pan I move the bacon aside and add the veggies to start the wilting process while it’s still warm) extra garlic and always add fresh spinach (we always have some that needs to be used), and also add basil. Love Chef John!

Pretty good! I left out the lemon zest at the suggestion of other reviewers and added red chili flakes instead of cayenne pepper. I love arugula so I kept that in there and it turned out delicious! It's def a heavy dish with the bacon fat but so good!

This was super yummy and very attractive on the plate!

I am an Expat living in Guadalajara Mexico and cook American type dishes for other Expats who crave food from North of the border. I had 3 orders for this dish before I even made it. I did substitute sour cream for the creme fraiche, added a little chopped ham (the bacon here lacks the flavor of American style bacon) and substituted spinach. Next time I might also add cubed chicken and call it Club House Pasta LOL. This is YUMMY!

Fabulous! I subbed cream cheese and sour cream for the creme fraiche and spinach for arugula. I used fresh cherry tomatoes from my garden. Thanks for the recipe!!

The BIG problem with this recipe is that it says it serves 4. For skinny minny nibbler types maybe. My husband and I (admittedly big eaters) ate it all ourselves. Ingredient wise, I followed the recipe exactly but I didn't use any olive oil in the pan for the bacon? Why? I start with a cold pan and by the time the pan heats up, you have bacon grease. And I don't soak up the bacon grease and throw it away. Horrors. I poured part of it out into my bacon grease cup. So really it's the exact recipe just a slightly different technique. And if you have a little more bacon, would it hurt to add that? Nope. It's fine as is, fine with more bacon. Love it any way.

My husband loved this and so did I ! I have been instructed to make this again sometime :-). I used a full pound of bacon, and added a little extra canned fire roasted tomato that I needed to use up. Had to use some heavy cream instead of creme fraiche, and used spinach instead of arugula. Also substituted penne pasta as that is what I had in the pantry. This is similar to other dishes I have made in the past, but love the addition of the lemon zest. This one will go in my file of favorite quick dinners!

Delicious. Only thing is recipe says ditalini pasta, which is a tiny pasta. I used cavatappi like the picture shows. And I left out arugula. I just served it with some nice green leaf lettuce.

Delicious! Even my kids gobbled it up and asked for more. Only change I made was that I added a small amount of spinach with the arugula and I didn't have cherry tomatoes so I used chopped up celebrity tomatoes instead. Will definitely be making this one again!

I'm lactose intolerant so I used Tofutti "sour cream" in place of the creme fraiche, which didn't have the same sourness as regular sour cream. I was happy it didn't curdle b/c I'd read replacing the CF with SC could do that. I put in 12oz bacon b/c that's what came in the package, and it was still a good balance of bacon in the dish. Overall, easy to make and tasty.

Delicious! Didn’t find creme fraiche so subbed low fat sour cream I had and used a spiral pasta with Campari tomatoes which are always the tastiest toms I can get in S FL. Turned out great! I will plan ahead and try creme fraiche next time. Husband and I are really looking forward to it! Thanks Chef John, for another great recipe!

I made this for my family all last summer and it was a hit each time. If anyone is looking for a great summer pasta salad you should try this one. I added the arugula once, and it was still good leaving it out.

I used pancetta rather than bacon; light sour cream instead of creme fraiche; spinach rather than arugula and I added fresh basil. I will definitely make it again - my husband and I both loved it. I also used different pasta.

This was very good! I followed the recipe exactly except I omitted the cayenne. The only changes I would make next time is to use less lemon zest. It absorbed into the tomato a little too much and each bite of tomato felt more like a lemon than a tomato. Thanks!

Sorry but hubby and I didn't like this at all. Hubby said there are much better uses for bacon. We usually love Chef John's recipes but this one really let us down. I followed the recipe exactly except I did add a bit more spinach. Just not our thing I guess.

I made this last night and it was amazing!!!!

This was very good. I did not care much for the arugula, would substitute spinach next time Just for personal preference.

VERY easy and quick.my family loved it.

It came out delicious. I made the creme fraiche for the first time and its awesome. I added some onion to mine, after I rendered the bacon. My family loved it. The baby arugula is delicious in this recipe.

Adults said it was just ok, kids thought it was the best meal ever.

Love this recipe. I couldn't find crème fraiche so had to use sour cream, but it was still wonderful! Otherwise, no other changes were needed or wanted. Great recipe as written. Keep 'em coming, Chef John!

This Recipe is O.K.

Love this recipe, but like everyone else I had to do some modifications first I could not find creme fraite anywhere, went to at least 3 grocery stores apparently it's more of an item they sell during the holidays like thanksgiving and Christmas, I read some of the reviews and it seem a couple people used sour cream instead so first thing I used sour cream, and some mayo with it, I also used baby spinach instead of arugula, instead of cooking the bacon on top of the stove I cooked it in the oven which is how I cook all my bacon that way the smell doesn't take over the house, I also used a little bit of crush red pepper, some season salt and regular pepper to give it some flavor. My husband love it and was upset I didn't make more this is going on my menu rotation.

I have made this recipe many times and it is absolutely amazing. My family and my boyfriend love it, and when I bring my leftovers to work I usually have several coworkers eyeing my lunch or telling me how delicious it looks. This time I had to alter the recipe slightly due to the limited availability of so many items in the store. Using sun-dried tomatoes made this pasta dish SO yummy. I also used sour cream instead of creme fraiche, as some other reviewers recommended, and it was still great! Lastly I used a different kind of pasta but I think we definitely prefer the ditalini. Thanks so much for this recipe, we can’t get enough of this dish.

Chef John for the win again!