Beautiful Courgette Carbonara
Serves
4
This dish it is an amazing
dish…good enough to serve guests. I have
made it at our Taylor reunions—not an easy task in an unfamiliar kitchen when
there are only tiny pots to cook pasta for a crowd (it took so long to cook the
pasta in small batches). You will need a
very large pan or mixing bowl so that you can mix it all together.
The recipe is from
Jamie Oliver’s cookbook, At Home. He is a great cook to learn about (jamieoliver.com) because he fights to help people change the way they eat, and to get public schools in England and the U.S. to serve healthier meals. He also "helps young people gain a new lease on life by training them in kitchens to have employable skills, giving them a sense of achievement and self-worth" [quote from his website].
Sea salt
and freshly ground black pepper
6
courgettes (zucchini), medium sized green and yellow (1-2 per
person)
500g
penne pasta (or linguine, but penne is the original pasta for
carbonara)
4 egg
yolks, large free-range or organic (1 per person to be served)
100ml
double cream (1 oz per person)
Parmesan
cheese, 2 good handfuls of freshly grated
Olive
oil
Pancetta
or bacon, 12 thick slices, cut into chunky lardoons
Fresh
thyme, small bunch, leaves picked and chopped, flowers reserved (if you
can get hold of flowering thyme, or variegated variety)
optional:
a few courgette flowers
- Put a large pan of
salted water on to boil. Halve and then quarter any larger courgettes
lengthways. Cut out and discard any fluffy middle bits, and slice the
courgettes at an angle into pieces roughly the same size and shape as the
penne. Smaller courgettes can simply be sliced finely. Your water will now
be boiling, so add the penne to the pan and cook according to the packet
instructions.
- To make your creamy
carbonara sauce, put the egg yolks into a bowl, add the cream and half the
Parmesan, and mix together with a fork. Season lightly and put to one
side.
- Heat a very large frying
pan (a 35cm one is a good start – every house should have one!), add a
good splash of olive oil and fry the pancetta or bacon until dark brown
and crisp. Drain most of the oil.
Add the courgette slices and 2 big pinches of black pepper, not just to
season but to give it a bit of a kick. Sprinkle in the thyme leaves, give
everything a stir, so the courgettes become coated with all the lovely
bacon-flavoured oil, and fry until they start to turn lightly golden and
have softened slightly.
- It’s very important to
get this next bit right or your carbonara could end up ruined. You need to
work quickly. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, reserving a little of
the cooking water. Immediately, toss the pasta in the pan with the
courgettes, bacon and lovely flavours, then remove from the heat and add a
ladleful of the reserved cooking water and your creamy sauce. Stir
together quickly. (No more cooking now, otherwise you’ll scramble the
eggs.)
- Get everyone around the
table, ready to eat straight away. While you’re tossing the pasta and
sauce, sprinkle in the rest of the Parmesan and a little more of the
cooking water if needed, to give you a silky and shiny sauce. Taste
quickly for seasoning. If you’ve managed to get any courgette flowers,
tear them over the top, then serve and eat immediately, as the sauce can
become thick and stodgy if left too long.
*
I use Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (you can get it at Costco), Applegate
Farms brand “Sunday Bacon” (it doesn’t have nitrates) from the health food
store.
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