Recipe: Hearty Pasta Carbonara With Peas
Katy Sparks adds a little onion and garlic (plus peas) to the traditional carbonara recipe.
This recipe is a perfect weeknight meal when you are a little burned out on thinking about what to make for dinner. These powerful and delicious flavors never disappoint. As opposed to many carbonara recipes you can find, I don’t think separating a couple of eggs for just the yolk is worth the extra creaminess you get because I wind up never using those two egg whites. I also add a little onion and garlic, which may not be completely traditional, but I like it because I enjoy an extra-hearty pasta this time of year. Another difference is that I find adding the black pepper to the bacon pan instead of to the whisked eggs really helps the pepper “bloom” in flavor; most dried spices can benefit from some direct contact to fat and heat in order to really showcase their full potential. Yet another tip (or at least another opinion) is to thaw your frozen peas gently on the counter an hour or so before you need them and then just slightly warm them in the pasta cooking water by dipping a few times in a sieve. The peas are essentially cooked (blanched) before they are frozen so any more heating than that gentle dip can make them a little tough.
And because a successful pasta carbonara is so reliant on getting all the ingredients to a reasonably common warm but not too hot temperature, you will want to warm the eggs up a bit before whisking. If you add cold eggs to really hot pasta you will get a lot of scrambled eggs instead of the creamy, cheesy sauce coating each strand of pasta that is so desirable. You want to meet in the middle — so the pasta needs to be south of crazy hot which is why you do the last step off the heat, and the eggs need to be a little warm, so before I crack them I let them sit in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.
Hearty Pasta Carbonara With Peas
4 servings
1 Tablespoon good olive oil
4 slices of smoky local bacon, cut into ¼” thick strips
¼ yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, medium grind
4 large local, pastured eggs (slightly warmed before whisking)
½ cup grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for garnishing each plate
½ cup grated parmesan, plus more for garnishing each plate
2/3 cup thawed and lightly warmed frozen young green peas
¾ pound of spaghetti or bucatini or other shape you like
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the cut bacon strips and sauté until just beginning to brown. Add the sliced onion, garlic and freshly ground black pepper. Cook a minute or so more until onion is wilted. Set aside.
Bring water to a boil for cooking your pasta. Add a pinch of salt. Cook the pasta to al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, whisk together your warmed eggs and the cheeses.
Halfway through the pasta cooking time, dip the thawed peas into the pasta water to warm through.
When the pasta gets within a minute or two of being done, reheat the bacon skillet gently over low to moderate heat and add 1 cup of pasta cooking liquid. You want to wait until the end of the cooking time because you want as much starch from the pasta in the water as possible — it helps thicken the sauce.
Drain the al dente pasta. Add pasta to the bacon pan. Remove from the heat and add the peas. Add the egg and cheese mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or wooden pasta fork to evenly coat the pasta with the egg mixture.
Divide among 4 pre-warmed bowls or plates and garnish with more cheese.
