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When Castello Cheese contacted me about testing out their new line of cheese – ready just in time for Christmas!- I readily agreed to give them a go. This family loves cheese in all it’s many wonderful shapes and forms, so someone asking me to try it out at no cost? Yes please!
When I received the package there was a lovely magazine included with recipes using their cheese and coupons. Being the Type A personality that I am when it comes to food, I knew that I wasn’t merely tasting these lovely cheeses, I was going to make a supper based on one or two of them!
The recipe in the magazine that caught my eye was a creamy blue cheese pasta, using decadent mascarpone and blue cheese to cover luscious linguine. I couldn’t stop looking at the picture, the creamy, decadent cheese sauce with bacon on top of gorgeous pasta. I instantly knew that this dish was in my supper future.
Sadly, I can say that the only person in this family that loves blue cheese is myself, so I knew that the recipe would have to be customized to fit our needs.
The four new Bavarian Alps Selection Cheeses that I was asked to try were:
Weissbeir: A buttery cheese with a faint bitterness and a hint of nutty sweetness. It is great for sandwiches, perfect with grilled vegetables, and delicious with your favourite white wine.
Chiantino: A mild and slightly sweet cheese with hints of dark chocolate, fruitiness and dryness of Chianti. It is perfect as a snack with olives or baked figs, and is great for melting recipes or with green asparagus.
Classic Cheese: This cheese has a slightly smoky aroma, and a spicy hint of mountain herbs. It is best served with freshly baked bread or full-bodied red wines.
Hirten: This cheese has a slightly sweet caramel overtone with hints of pine. It goes great with sweet foods such as figs and chocolate, and is perfect for sandwiches with spiced ingredients.
For a pasta dish that needed to be kid friendly, the Weissbeir won, hands down. The creamy texture was perfect for melting into a lovely sauce and it was mild enough for my children’s palate.
This was a hit with the entire family and for those readers who are familiar with my trials and tribulations of my selective eater children, this is a major hit.
I used real cheese, not marble in a dish and my kids loved it, most notably my daughter who rarely strays from marble. *shaking my head*
I used bacon and my daughter ate it.
I put asparagus on top, this is the best way to present a vegetable with pasta by the way because the kids pick it off and eat it first, don’t make the mistake of mixing it in! Keep it clean and fresh on the top.
I used white wine in the recipe which gave it an adult tang to the taste and the kids didn’t even notice.
All of the above add up to one amazing WIN for supper time in the Magpie household.
I used another Castello cheese, the Hirten, grated on top of the pasta to give it even more of a cheesy flavour. The Hirten is delightfully pungent, perfect for grating on top of dishes to add a fabulous zing. As soon as I opened it, I knew from the smell that we were going to be fast friends.
Now the amazing people at Castello also sent me a bunch of goodies to give to one of my readers and I’m afraid I’m going to have to make you wait.
There’s a whole lotta awesome coming up on The Kitchen Magpie.
Just hang on.
It’s coming.
I promise.
For now, you can go out and get the ingredients for this pasta and make it on a blustery snowy day, when you need a decadent comfort food meal.
Love,
I’m Going To Spoil You Amazing Readers Rotten This Christmas Magpie
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Cheesy Bacon & Asparagus Pasta
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 10 minutes
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Course
- Entree
- Cuisine
- American
- Servings
- 4
- Calories
- 2998
- Author
- Karlynn Johnston
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry linguine
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 slices bacon chopped into 1/4 " pieces
- 2 teaspoons flour
- 1 shallot peeled and minced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/3 cup white wine
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 gram Mascarpone
- 1/3 cup cubed Castello Alps Selections Weissbeir Cheese
- 1 bunch asparagus steamed
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- In a large skilled on medium high heat, cook bacon until crispy.
- Remove the bacon and drain on paper towels.Drain off most of the bacon fat and place skillet back onto the stove, again on medium heat.
- Add the butter, shallots & garlic, cook until the shallots soften then add wine. Cook for approximately 4-5 minutes.
- Stir in the flour until it begins to brown.
- Add in the milk, stirring until the mixture thickens.
- When the water is ready, cook the pasta until al dente, drain then toss in olive oil to prevent sticking while you finish the sauce.
- Add in the Mascarpone and Weissbeir and cook until the cheese melts (around 5 minutes).
- Remove from the heat, add in the bacon pieces and pour over the cooked pasta.Serve and top with asparagus spears.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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Please rate this recipe in the comments below to help out your fellow cooks!
Karlynn Johnston says
Any creamy yet slightly sharp tasting cheese!
Nicole says
sounds delicious, but we don’t have Weissbeir Cheese here. what can you suggest as a substitute? thanks.
Karlynn Johnston says
Save On Foods! Nice and easy!
Lorrie says
where can you buy this brand of cheese?