What’s not to like about a quick pasta dish with tomatoes, bacon and onion?  And cheese?

I’ve always loved the Cook’s Illustrated version of this but this one, featured in the May 2011 issue of Bon Appetit is really delicious too.  This one, I think, is more tomato-y and I was lucky enough to have canned San Marzano tomatoes so that didn’t hurt either.

I also had a surfeit of bacon in the fridge so I couldn’t really bring myself to buy guanciale, pancetta, or unsmoked bacon for this.  Needless to say, no one complained.

Frustratingly, I couldn’t get the bucatini.  Of course they didn’t have it at Jewel but I was surprised at how limited the pasta selection at Whole Foods was.  Spaghetti, linguine and fettuccine was all that was available by way of strand pasta.  And two stores is pretty much my limit for an ingredient-hunt for a weeknight meal so I made this with spaghetti.

If canned tomatoes, pasta and onions are usually in your cupboard you will want to keep this recipe for those nights when you are stuck making dinner with what you have on hand.  And you won’t be sorry.