Back to when my youngest niece was still unmarried and living with me, and whenever I was in the country, as I used to work abroad before, I would cook her food to bring to the office for lunch. When she brought this, they asked her who was cooking her food, and she answered it was her Tita, Tagalog word for auntie, and they jokingly asked her if they could borrow her Tita so that she could also cook for them! Ha ha!
In this recipe, I used:
1 pack of penne pasta, cooked until al dente
a few slices of bacon, sliced into pieces, fried and drained
1 avocado, deseeded and cut into cubes
5-10 cherry tomatoes, cut into halves
1 clove of garlic, minced very finely
a blob of butter
salt and pepper
chili flakes
Here is what the dish looks like after it's been mixed together. Looks delish, right? Ready?
First things first. It's best to have all your ingredients ready, as when the pasta is cooked, all you have to do is dunk the ingredients quickly, mix, and then you're ready to it. So, while I am boiling the pasta, I am frying the bacon. The amount of bacon you use is up to you. My niece's husband, when they come visit and I cook this for them, has also come to love this dish just as my niece does.
Now that avocados are in season, I cook this often because avocados are not available year round, and even if I do find them year round, the ones in the grocery stores are often not very good when they are not in season. You can prepare this last because avocados tend to discolor very fast. What I do is I just cut the avocados in half, remove the seed, run my knife several times in the flesh crisscross, and then scoop the flesh out with a spoon.
If you don't have cherry tomatoes at home, that is perfectly fine. You can use regular tomatoes, just make sure to remove the seeds if you do, so that the dish will not become watery, and slice your tomatoes into cubes.
And don't forget the garlic please. The garlic will not be cooked, that's why it has to be minced really finely, and the hot pasta will 'cook' it with its heat.
To know when your pasta is al dente, it should be soft enough but still has some resistance to the teeth, sort of a chewy texture. I absolutely do not eat overcooked pasta. Ugh!
So, when your pasta is ready, drain it quickly, and in the same pot, you can start to mix in your ingredients. Right after I have drained the water, the very first things I add are the garlic and the butter. I mix them into the pasta.
Next go the bacon. I mix thoroughly again. This time I get a taste. If it needs salt, this is the time to add, as well as a pinch of black pepper.
Next to be added are the tomatoes. Every time an ingredient is added, mix, although when you mix, try doing it gently so as not to 'crush' your ingredients, just a few stirs at a time, using two spatulas or salad spoons.
Last to go are your avocados, as it is the most delicate ingredient. Mix it again, and then you are ready to plate it. If there are no kids eating with you, you may want to add the chili flakes as well now, but if kids are eating with you, you can just sprinkle it on your plates individually.
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