Oyster and Bacon Olive Oil Pasta

The Dish blend we recommend for this recipe. Dish Symphony No.2

Dish Symphony No.2 goes beautifully with oysters. We used it recently in an oyster ajillo and the result was so good that we thought: right, let us take it to pasta. Hence this recipe.

Olive oil pastas, of which peperoncino is the best known, let you enjoy the plain flavour of the wheat itself. The ingredients are simple and it comes together quickly, which is why we like it.

The trick to making it well is to build a broth in which the seasoning blend Dish lifts the savoury flavour of the oysters and bacon, and then finish the pasta so that it drinks that broth up.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• Dish (Symphony No.2): about one heaped small spoonful
• Pasta: 200g
• Oysters: 100g
• Thick-cut bacon: 100~200g
• Garlic: 2 cloves
• Mushrooms of your choice: 100g (adjust the amount to taste). We used brown mushrooms here.
• Olive oil: 4 tbsp
• Salt: as needed
• Water for boiling the pasta
• Water: 2L
• Salt: 1 tbsp
• To finish
• Grated hard cheese: as needed

Preparation

• Sprinkle the oysters with salt (not listed in the ingredients), rub them gently, and rinse them under running water about three times.
• Cut the bacon into short strips.
• Cut the mushrooms into easy-to-eat pieces.
• Peel the garlic and slice it.

Method

1. Put 4 tbsp of olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic into a frying pan and set it over low heat.
   
   
2. Add 2L of water and 1 tbsp of salt to the pan for the pasta and bring it to the boil.
   
   

   While it comes to the boil, finish the pasta sauce.

   
   
   
3. When the garlic starts to smell good, add the bacon and mushrooms to the frying pan, sprinkle over a little salt and about one heaped small spoonful of Dish (Symphony No.2), and fry.
   
   

   Keep the salt light here, as you will adjust the seasoning at the end.

4. Once everything is cooked through, add 100g of oysters and a little salt, cook them so that both sides are seared, then toss everything together.
   
   Lift the oysters out onto a separate plate.
   
   

   The sauce is now essentially finished. While the pasta boils, keep the frying pan on the lowest setting or turn it off.

5. Once the pasta water is boiling, start cooking 200g of pasta according to the cooking time for the pasta you are using.
   
   

   You want the pasta al dente with some bite left, so drain it slightly ahead of the stated time.

   
   
   
6. When half of the remaining cooking time has passed, add one or two ladles of the pasta water to the frying pan and stir it into the oil sauce to emulsify it.
   
   

   Emulsifying is the key to a good oil-based pasta. Starch from the wheat dissolves into the pasta water, and stirring that into the oil gives you a thickened, flavourful sauce. Shop-bought pasta sometimes releases very little starch. If you find yourself thinking that it is not thickening, dust a little plain flour into the sauce and stir it in.

7. Drain the pasta, add it to the frying pan, toss everything together and adjust the salt.
   
   
8. Plate up, arrange the oysters on top, dust with grated hard cheese and serve.