Sunday, March 12, 2006
Spaghetti with Vegetable Carbonara
The rain seemed unstoppable again today. Big drops of icy cold water were pounding my face on the way home from work. When I finally got home, I was so happy to be there, I forgot to be angry about anything at all. But I was also cold and wet, so sitting in a cold living room did not seem like the nicest of prospects. I headed straight off to the kitchen (which is really just the back wall of the living room, but does get a lot warmer than the rest of the room from the heat of the stove).Again, we felt like having a winter warmer for dinner, a stew or a thick soup perhaps. Looking through my cookbooks, I found a recipe for a clear broth with pearl barley and vegetables, prepared a bit like a casserole, boiled first and then topped with a layer of potatoes and baked in the oven. That sounded like just the kiddie for an evening like this, so I got right on it. I chopped the vegetables and put the barley on. In the meantime I signed up for the free evening poker tournament thinking that dinner was going to virtually cook itself tonight. As I should learn the hard way, this was a big mistake. I was doing better than I had anticipated and accordingly the game attracted more of my attention than was good for the stew. I didn't read the recipe from start to finish and when I finally got to the point where it says, "put in the preheated oven and bake for an hour and a half" it was 7:30. Great. Dinner at 9 o'clock? I don't think so!
First I panicked, then I despaired, then I cursed, and then I got on with it. I put the stew in the oven anyway, we can always eat it tomorrow. But what to cook as a replacement? I had my groceries delivered Today, so we were not short of ingredients. The biggest problem was time. After a quick look around the fridge, it was clear that I had to fall back on what in my opinion is the perfect fast food: pasta. I had some fresh egg noodles delivered and still had plenty of vegetables from my visit to the market on Saturday. I also found two eggs that had been in the fridge for almost two weeks and a few rashers of streaky bacon. Sounds like a perfect list of ingredients for spaghetti carbonara, doesn't it?
1 tbsp olive oil
2 to 3 rashers smoked bacon or pancetta, diced
2 handfuls of mushrooms, thinly sliced
½ leek, cleaned and sliced
1 large handful of sprouting broccoli (alternatively use broccoli florets)
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
enough pasta for 2 people
2 medium eggs
70 ml single cream
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 Oxo cube (alternatively salt and pepper to taste)
Heat the olive oil in a large shallow pan over medium high heat. Fry the bacon until crisp. Remove from the pan, leaving the fat behind. Set the bacon to one side and leave to cool.
Add the mushrooms, leek and garlic to the bacon fat and fry until tender. Blanch the broccoli in boiling water for about 4 minutes, drain and add to the pan. Stir to mix well and turn off the heat.
In a large saucepan, cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.
In a bowl, mix the eggs, single cream and Parmesan. Once combined, add the cooked bacon and Oxo cube.
Drain the cooked spaghetti, return to the pan and immediately pour in the fried vegetables followed by the carbonara sauce.
Toss to coat and allow the egg to 'set' slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Christine at 4:15 pm
