blt pasta with orange-red onion salad

This was another recipe from my Cuisine at Home magazine.  This is the second recipe that has called for red pepper flakes and ended up being almost too hot to eat.  From now on, I am not putting any red pepper flakes in my recipes and will just wait until the end to season.  It was hard to even capture a taste of the bacon, tomato or spinach with all the heat from the red pepper-infused sauce.  Chef D ate it but did not really care for it.

The orange-red onion salad was a nice cool retreat from the heat of the pasta.  I really enjoyed the flavor of the dressing and even the onions (which I normally do not like on salads).  Chef D prefers a salad with a bit more crunch, so if I make the salad again I will include some iceberg lettuce with the mesclun/spring mix.