Pasta alla Carbonara (Fettuccini or Spaghetti)
I seriously love this dish. It's an easy, stick-to-your ribs Roman classics that I could eat three times a day. (When I had it in Rome, it was for breakfast...but it is hearty enough to be served at any meal!)
The basic recipe is simply this:
1 box of spaghetti or fettuccini (or any other noodle you like)
4-8 oz. pancetta or smoked bacon
2-3 eggs
2 oz. pecorino romano cheese, grated (you can sub parmesan, but pecorino is better)
Cook 1 box of spaghetti or fettuccini in salted water to just before al dente. Reserve 1-2 cups of the pasta water before draining.
Pan fry pancetta or bacon cut into small pieces in a LARGE pan. Drain off the fat (some people *cough-my husband* keep the fat, but it makes the dish too rich for me). Remove the pan from heat.
Toss the pasta in the pan with the bacon with 1 c. of the reserved pasta water. Temper 2-3 eggs with some of the remaining reserved pasta water and add the grated cheese. Pour over the pasta and toss until the egg, water, and bacon fat have combined to make a custardy coating on the pasta noodles. Be careful to toss right away so the egg doesn't scramble in the bottom of the pan! If necessary, return the pan to low heat to cook the egg and dry out any excess liquid -- the pasta should be thick and hearty, not soupy.
Serve topped with extra cheese and fresh ground black pepper.
Now -- my variation on this is that I add sauteed bell pepper and mushroom to this to liven it up a bit, but this part is by all means unnecessary. Notice there is NO CREAM in this recipe...because classic carbonara doesn't have any! Enjoy!
Monday, October 27, 2008
As usual, been busier than ever!
This month, I made:
-Tomato sauce from scratch -- thanks to the 20 lbs of romas my coworker brought me!
-butternut soup -- from the 1 butternut squash that I buy each year because they're so pretty
-butternut cornbread
-fettuccine carbonara -- this is actually one of my most favorite dishes, and a comfort food in our home
-cream puffs! (well, sort of)
Tomato sauce is surprisingly easy, I actually made 2 different kinds. Sauce #1t was just chopped tomatoes with seeds, peels, and all thrown into a saucepot and cooked down with a little salt and italian seasoning until it thickened and the tomatoes fell apart. I served it with spaghetti noodles and shrimp with fresh basil.
Sauce #2, I actually went to the trouble of blanching the tomatoes, then peeling them & removing the seeds prior to cooking them with the seasonings. While it was cooking, I went at the tomatoes with my immersion blender to get a nice smooth sauce. I made 2 quarts of this type of sauce, one for crockpot venison rotini for my co-workers and another quart for the freezer.
The butternut soup is good, but it tastes just a little bit off compared to what I normally make, it just seems more rich than normal...I think I put too much of something into it, but I can't put my finger on what. It could be a number of things, I roasted my butternut this year instead of just boiling it and I added bacon fat instead of butter to the base puree...but I really only put like 2 tablespoons of bacon fat into it, so I'm not sure. I also used roasted garlic out of a jar instead of fresh garlic...so there's a whole bunch of changes compared to last year. Anyway, I can't remember the exact ingredients, and I didn't so much care for the soup to begin with no recipe on that this year.
Butternut cornbread was made from the above puree, so same flavor issue. The cornbread consistency and texture was great though, not nearly as dry as cornbreads in the past -- but still not quite as moist as I'd like.
And cream puffs! I used a basic recipe from the Joy of Cooking, with 2 modifications -- I used 1 c. 2% milk instead of 1/2 c. whole milk mixed with 1/2 c. water, and then I added Trader Joe's pumpkin butter to my whipped cream. The pate choux came out a little tougher than I'd like, but I attribute that to my use of a hand mixer in lieu of a kitchenaid that I so covet...but who knows, it could be that milk substitution I made. I just couldn't justify buying a quart of whole milk when the 2% was sold in nice neat little 1-cup cartons. Photos & recipes to be posted later!
This month, I made:
-Tomato sauce from scratch -- thanks to the 20 lbs of romas my coworker brought me!
-butternut soup -- from the 1 butternut squash that I buy each year because they're so pretty
-butternut cornbread
-fettuccine carbonara -- this is actually one of my most favorite dishes, and a comfort food in our home
-cream puffs! (well, sort of)
Tomato sauce is surprisingly easy, I actually made 2 different kinds. Sauce #1t was just chopped tomatoes with seeds, peels, and all thrown into a saucepot and cooked down with a little salt and italian seasoning until it thickened and the tomatoes fell apart. I served it with spaghetti noodles and shrimp with fresh basil.
Sauce #2, I actually went to the trouble of blanching the tomatoes, then peeling them & removing the seeds prior to cooking them with the seasonings. While it was cooking, I went at the tomatoes with my immersion blender to get a nice smooth sauce. I made 2 quarts of this type of sauce, one for crockpot venison rotini for my co-workers and another quart for the freezer.
The butternut soup is good, but it tastes just a little bit off compared to what I normally make, it just seems more rich than normal...I think I put too much of something into it, but I can't put my finger on what. It could be a number of things, I roasted my butternut this year instead of just boiling it and I added bacon fat instead of butter to the base puree...but I really only put like 2 tablespoons of bacon fat into it, so I'm not sure. I also used roasted garlic out of a jar instead of fresh garlic...so there's a whole bunch of changes compared to last year. Anyway, I can't remember the exact ingredients, and I didn't so much care for the soup to begin with no recipe on that this year.
Butternut cornbread was made from the above puree, so same flavor issue. The cornbread consistency and texture was great though, not nearly as dry as cornbreads in the past -- but still not quite as moist as I'd like.
And cream puffs! I used a basic recipe from the Joy of Cooking, with 2 modifications -- I used 1 c. 2% milk instead of 1/2 c. whole milk mixed with 1/2 c. water, and then I added Trader Joe's pumpkin butter to my whipped cream. The pate choux came out a little tougher than I'd like, but I attribute that to my use of a hand mixer in lieu of a kitchenaid that I so covet...but who knows, it could be that milk substitution I made. I just couldn't justify buying a quart of whole milk when the 2% was sold in nice neat little 1-cup cartons. Photos & recipes to be posted later!
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