Pasta carbonara – Classic or quirky?
That looks pretty normal, right? I hope so because I really wanted to provide a “classic” picture for this dish considering it’s called “Classic Spaghetti Carbonara.”
Ingredients:1/2 pound bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1 pound fresh spaghetti cooked al dente
4 large eggs, beaten
1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, fresh, grated
1 tablespoon parsley, fresh, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1.) In a large sauté pan over medium heat, cook the bacon until crispy, about 6 minutes. Remove the bacon and drain on paper towels.
2.) Pour off all the oil except for 3 tablespoons.
3.) Add the garlic. Season with black pepper. Sauté for 30 seconds.
4.) Add the crispy bacon and the pasta. Saute for 1 minute.
5.) Season the eggs with salt. Remove the pan from the heat and add the eggs, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble.
6.) Add the cheese and re-season with salt and pepper.
7.) Mound into serving bowls and garnish with parsley.
I chose this recipe from the culinary school at Baltimore International College. There were so many recipes to choose from, but I opted for one that I’ve cooked before, so I had less chance of royally messing it up and I could feel more comfortable playing around with it if need be. There are a few more recipes I’m eyeing, so don’t be surprised if you see BIC here again.
Now for the quirky ones:
How was I supposed to know that I’d eventually start taking pictures of every dish I made and that black was a horrible color choice for that? Yay for pasta marks glaring, hehe.
When N came in for supper, she yelled out “Yes! My second favorite!! It smells so good!” Um, I’ve only made carbonara one other time and it would’ve been over a year ago, lol. And now I’m wondering what her list of “current favorites” really includes. Hmm.
I liked this particular recipe, but I did get one criticism. “Isn’t it supposed to be creamier than this?” I agree that it wasn’t quite as creamy as other versions I’ve had. I’m wondering if part of that was because I used turkey bacon instead of regular pork bacon, which means there wasn’t nearly as much grease that would trickle into the pasta.
Oh, I also used more than the 1/2 pound bacon the recipe called for, too, just because it didn’t look like enough and I was feeding major bacon lovers, hehe.
Tip – Turkey bacon has a lot of obvious pluses and when cooked correctly to your particular tastes, it’s indistinguishable from pork bacon, especially when mixed into a dish like this. Because there’s not much fat, be mindful not to burn it unless that’s how you like it. My mom will only eat it burned, so I tend to burn some intentionally just for her, lol.
Tip – The biggest perk to turkey bacon is that it holds its shape. I was able to take normal kitchen shears to some strips to make the face pieces.
Tip – If you’ve never made carbonara before, I would suggest watching a video or at least researching for a few minutes online. You really, really don’t want the eggs to scramble, so be careful.
***I was provided with monetary compensation for the ingredients of this recipe. It also covered the cost of the salad I served with this but isn’t pictured because we added it after eating away part of the pasta faces. ;) Thanks BIC for turning me onto a list of great sounding recipes and giving me the opportunity to try one out and share with everybody. ***
Six pounds of jalepeno peppers later…..
The girls love jalapeños and spicy foods in general. It’s not uncommon for me to make something relatively mild and one of them to ask if they can have peppers with it, too. Who am I to say no?
Last summer I had access to garden fresh ones from a friend of the family, so I was using them frequently. One day, though, I burned myself really bad.
Until that point, I didn’t even own rubber gloves, much less actually use them, and I’d never had any issues. I would always just be careful not to get the oil in my eyes and wash well when I was done. Not this day, though. This particular day lit my hands on fire and they ached for over a week. I searched for solutions online but by that time, the damage was done and all I could really do was wait it out.
The worst part wasn’t the surface burns, though, but rather that the jalapeño fun had gotten under my nails, too, and even a simple act like scratching an itch would reignite burning sensations. If you’ve never been burned by peppers before (and I hadn’t…at least not more than just slightly anyway), it basically feels like you’ve touched a hot burner….and then laid out in the sun, fallen asleep, and sunburned yourself to a crisp. Except there’s no soothing it with aloe. :(
Anyway…
After my fresh stock ran out, my plan was to find a large jar of sliced jalapenos to have on hand. No more of this “cutting one a night” and risking burning myself again. Sure, I bought a pair of gloves to have on hand, but that’s not the point. I wanted to be able to reach into the fridge, pull out the little slices of heat, and move on.
Instead, I stumbled across the 6 *pound* can of jalapeño peppers and became giddy. Do you have any idea what I could do with that many peppers!?!? Yeah, me neither, but I was suddenly envisioning several bowls of different sliced, diced, and whole peppers, neatly stacked in the back of my fridge.
And so I made it true:
I immediately turned over half of the whole ones into pepper poppers. The rest got stacked neatly in the back of my fridge and have been used extensively since. I don’t remember how long it took me to do all the de-seeding and cutting, but it wasn’t ‘that’ long. Considering they’re pickled and we don’t eat ‘that’ many at once, these will last for many months to come, with no future effort required.
Tip: Do this while the kids aren’t home. I ended up terrifying mine by not letting them anywhere near where spicy oils might fly. I burned myself really bad, remember? Lol. The next few times I put jalapenos on the table, they were a bit reluctant to pick them up with their fingers and I felt bad. :( Oops!
Tip of the Day – Put your pizza on a pizza pan…or else
Fortunately, this is ‘not’ my picture.* I’ve put my fair share of pizzas right on the rack and the worst I’ve ended up with was a bit of cheese on the bottom of the oven.
Well, that and the constant reminder of pizza smell every time I use the oven for the next 6 months. Wait…how often am I supposed to clean the stove again…? Hmm.
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