Bacon Stroganoff

I searched high and low for a bacon stroganoff recipe on the internet. There aren’t that many recipes out there which surprises me because I think I’ve seen nearly every type of stroganoff you can imagine – even meatball! (Meatball Stroganoff should be my next try.) So I took my mom’s basic recipe for stroganoff and a pound of bacon and went from there. I had to wing it a little after I made a roux, added the cream of mushroom soup and got a curdled mess. So I poured in enough cream to give it a consistency of a cream sauce, like an alfredo or something. I almost didn’t bother with adding the sour cream, but sour cream is what makes stroganoff, no?

Plus my taste buds were a little off while I was making this dish (I was on the verge of full-blown sickness replete with zero taste buds) so I added some salt and then became terrified that I’d added too much but couldn’t even taste it. I figured the sour cream would help offset the saltiness if there were any.

I realized recently (because it seems like I’ve made so many variations of stroganoff) that I really do not care for egg noodles. In my opinion they are flimsy and I don’t enjoy the shape. So for this dish instead of egg noodles I swapped pappardelle noodles, which are like a very wide fettuccine. You could use any shape of noodle you prefer though. Or you could stick with the traditional egg noodle.

For some reason I always like to take pictures with the sauce on top of the noodles. I don’t know why. It doesn’t look any better in my opinion and I grew up where my mom mixed everything together. I did that again for this recipe but opted not to publish the sauce-on-top version because I don’t think it does justice. You can’t really see the bits of bacon that are the star of the show in this dish. So you’ll see pictures only of the noodles mixed with the sauce, but serve it as you prefer!

ingredients.

1 lb bacon, chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
¼ c. flour
8 oz mushrooms cleaned and quartered
1 T. minced garlic salt or 1 clove minced garlic
3 c. heavy cream, half and half or milk
1 14.5-oz can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup
1 c. sour cream
⅓ c. pasta water
16 oz wide egg noodles, cooked
salt and pepper, to taste

directions.

In a large skillet over medium-low heat cook bacon, mushrooms and shallots and minced garlic until bacon is crisp, stirring occasionally. I began by cooking the bacon a bit on its own first, then added the mushrooms. I let the mushrooms and bacon cook a bit while I chopped the shallots. Then I added the shallots and garlic. It took a while but you want the bacon to be crispy. Do not drain the bacon fat. You need it to make a roux.
Stir in flour. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. The flour will bubble up in the grease.
Stir in condensed soup. The mixture will look curdled. Slowly add the cream/milk. Simmer 10 minutes, uncovered. Stir in sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste, if necessary.
Prepare noodles according to package directions. While the noodles are boiling, add ⅓ cup of pasta water to the bacon sauce.
Serve sauce over noodles. Or mix sauce with noodles. Your choice!

Recipe rating: 