Chicken Liver Pasta

By Gibby

I got the most delicious pasta sauce that I had ever tasted. Smoky bacon, earthy chicken livers and a creamy sherry sauce; it was utter perfection and I ate as slowly as I could before mopping up the last morsel of this wonderful sauce. I swooned. Bron swooned when she had a taste. And every time we recounted our eclectic experiences that evening to friends later, we referred to that magical pasta sauce as "The best pasta sauce in the world".

Ingredients

• 250 g pack of chicken livers
• 6-8 rashers of smoked bacon
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 Tbsp of plain flour
• 100 ml milk
• 125 ml cream
• a generous glug of medium cream sherry
• 1/2 tsp dried sage
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• pasta of the shape you prefer - enough for 4 people

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from cooksister.com

Preparation

Step 1

Boil the pasta in salted water according to package instructions, until al dente.

Chop the onion and crush the garlic. Heat a little EVOO in a large pan and sautee the onion and garlic until the onion starts to soften. Meanwhile, chop the bacon rashers into 1cm strips (or you can buy pre-chopped bacon bits) and add to the pan. Fry until cooked.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions, garlic and bacon from the pan and keep warm, but reserve the cooking fat. Add the chicken livers to the pan (you may want to chop each liver into 3-4 smaller pieces). Cook until just done but still pink in the middle - watch them carefully as there is nothing worse than an overcooked rubbery chicken liver!

Add the onions and bacon back to the pan, remove from heat and stir in the flour to absorb the cooking fat (use more flour if you have a lot of fat). Stir in the milk, making sure you get rid of any floury lumps, then add the cream and sherry and return the pan to the heat, stirring continuously to keep the sauce smooth (add more milk/cream as needed). Season with sage, oregano, black pepper and salt as desired.

Drain the cooked pasta and return it to its pot, then add the sauce to the pot and stir through. Serve in heated bowls, garnished with chives.

OPTIONAL: you can also add chopped mushrooms when you cook the bacon; and you could spice things up by adding paprika or some dried chile flakes when you cook the livers.