Recipes - Pasta with Radicchio, Bacon, and Spinach

As some of you may know, I love to cook. Although neither of my parents cooked a great deal, they gave me a basic understanding of cooking techniques at a very early age. This was very useful when my four siblings and I entered school and often had to throw together our own meals to match our "out-of-sync" schedules.

These days I love to find neat recipes and try them out, especially those recipes that fit within my fairly finicky food habits. I am a fussy eater, so when I find a recipe like this, it is wonderful. The Food Network is a great source of recipes and food information. This dish comes from an episode of Gordon Elliott's Door Knock Dinners.

There are several great things about this dish. My wife is part Sicilian, so pasta is a big part of my repertoire. Since we took our first trip to Sicily to meet her relatives I have been heavily immersed in Italian foods. This is yet another way of making pasta so our meals don't get boring. Second, it contains some meat, which I love, but not enough to make it too fatty. Third, I don't like vegetables at all, but this pasta allows me to get radicchio, basil and spinach in a form that I will eat them.

I am hoping to throw this dish together in the next few weeks. I have already added to my personal recipe binder that always sits on the kitchen counter. This is where I collect all the neat recipes I come across on television and on the web. In the past, when we have been called away on business for a week or more, I take this binder with me so I can bring a little bit of home along with us. You might consider making one of your own.