Easy Cheese Sauce for Pasta (optional bacon and thyme)
A rich cheesy pasta sauce that takes 5 minutes to make. This easy cheesy deliciousness is made infinitely better with the addition of fresh thyme and crisp salty bacon.
Servings: 2 people
Ingredients
- 200 grams dried pasta (or 300 grams fresh)
- 170 g streaky bacon
- 3 tablespoons butter divided 1 tbsp for bacon and 2 tbsp for sauce
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup milk
- 150 g cheese I did 100g cheddar and 50g parmesan, both grated
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 heaped tablespoon fresh thyme leaves roughly chopped, plus more for serving
Instructions
- Fry the bacon in 1 tbsp of melted butter over medium - high heat until super crispy. Set aside on some paper towels then give a rough chop when cool so there's a mixture of crumbs and bigger pieces
- Over medium - high heat, melt the remaining 2 tbsp butter in a medium saucepan then add the flour and whisk into a paste for a minute to cook the flour off.
- Turn the heat down and add the milk gradually whisking vigorously to incorporate, making sure you are getting the flour paste from the bottom and sides of the pan. Add ¼ cup more milk if you think it will be too thick.
- Continue to cook, whisking until it begins to gently simmer then turn the heat down to low before adding the cheese in three lots, whisking in between each lot making sure it has melted in before adding the next.
- Add the black pepper and most of the bacon pieces (reserve a sprinkling for the top)
- Add in your cooked pasta and the fresh thyme and let it gently bubble away for a minute in the sauce. Add a splash of pasta water if you feel like you need to loosen the sauce.
- Serve with a sprinkling of bacon and thyme on the top.
Video
Notes
- Cheese - use a combination of anything you like. I use a basic cheddar and parmesan. Gruyere would also be great!
- This does make a lot of sauce, you could probably stretch to three people if you add some more pasta.
- Season to taste, I don't find I need to add any salt once I have added the bacon in.