Merry Christmas Pasta

Sorry about the lack of food posts of late. It's not that I haven't been cooking, it's that for some reason I've been making dishes that aren't very camera-friendly. (It's possible that they could be camera-friendly if they had a competent photographer. Let's just say I won't be winning any food-styling awards any time soon.) But finally I made something that looked decent in pictures. This is Rachael Ray's Christmas Pasta. 

If it looks ridiculously meaty, that's because it is. In fact, I didn't love it the first time I made it just for that reason. But Aaron, being a "there's no such thing as too much meat" kind of guy, loved it. And the more I fixed it, the more I wanted to keep making (and eating) it. I think maybe it's about getting the right ratio of meats for your taste. We use bacon (not because we don't like pancetta, but because we'd rather not spend all our grocery money on one slab of cured meat), ground beef, and Italian sausage (hot when we can find it). Also, I use rigatoni instead of penne, but it doesn't really matter. It's the perfect meal for a cozy winter's night in.