Cheese-gilded Linguine with Smoky Tomatoes

This is a very nice week-night pasta dish. The smokiness comes from bacon and you can use either fresh (which I did) or canned tomatoes. There is a bit of a kick from some red pepper flakes and i think it would be worth trying this recipe a second time using Aleppo pepper.

The "cheese-gilded" phrase indicates the the pasta is tossed with fresh parmesan prior to dressing it with the pasta sauce. I didn't notice that the change of technique made much difference to the end-product.

This recipe is similar to but milder than a Lidia Bastianich recipe that gets its heat from pepperoncini. Lidia's dish --only a bit more labor-intensive -- is company worthy. This recipe is a good week-night choice especially with canned tomatoes.