Childhood Favourite: Super Easy Fried Pasta
One of the dishes I’ll eat double my usual portion as a kid. Mom’s food is best food!
I never quite asked my mom how she came up with this dish. Neither did I ask her for the recipe.
Watching her cook this for me and eating it for years was enough. I’m certain this will be one of my comfort foods for the rest of my life. The feeling of nostalgia and emotions tied to food from childhood just has that hold on us and I hope you’ll make this for your family one day!
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
350 - 400g pasta, cooked
3 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
180g of bacon or ham, sliced (for substitute, see Notes, point 3)
(optional) fresh meat - I added cubed chicken breast for extra protein
Special sauce mix
2 tbsp fish sauce
1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp sugar
Notes
I added salt to the water I cooked my pasta in
For pasta shape, I think fusilli and penne makes this dish easy and fun to eat! I personally will not cook this with spaghetti or linguine.
If you are substituting bacon/ham for another ingredient with less flavour, you might have to adjust the special sauce mix
A good substitute with great flavour is smoked duck!
Method
Cook pasta till al dente, or even 30s before al dente
Render fat from bacon in a large, nonstick pan (If you’re using ham, simply frying it with an appropriate amount of oil would be sufficient)
Set aside bacon, the pan should have enough oil for you to start cooking the rest of the ingredients. Feel free to take away or add some oil if needed.
Sauté garlic until fragrant, then add frozen vegetable mix
Sauté frozen vegetables until just cooked, then add in cooked pasta
Mix everything in the pan roughly, then add special sauce mix
Add bacon back into the pan and ensure everything is mixed thoroughly
Adjust flavours if needed, I like cracking fresh black pepper and adding cut chilli padi just before serving
Notes
The pasta should be mildly undercooked because it will have time in the pan to cook fully
I usually prefer to use stainless steel pans for cooking, but pasta is soft & starchy and this cooking style is quite vigorous. Its definitely easier to cook this in a nonstick pan.
You can also use fresh vegetables and the steps will be exactly the same. Just remember to dice them small so they cook fast and well. This is supposed to be a quick recipe:)
If you’re adding extra protein like I did, I cooked & simply seasoned the chicken breast separately before adding it in at the same time as the bacon in the 2nd last step.
Just before serving, adding spring onions or cilantro is great too!
