Saturday, October 10, 2009

Rigatoni Carbonara!

Again I make a yummy dinner and AGAIN I forget to take a picture. How am I ever supposed to make my own cookbook if I can't photograph the results?! Oh well, seeing that I did not measure the ingredients, either, I suppose I will be making it again. This is a combination of a few recipes plus the addition of leftover veggies.
Here's a first draft:
1 lb rigatoni pasta
3 eggs
1 cup parmesean cheese
4oz pancetta (Italian style bacon, avail at Trader joes, although I've subbed for bacon and even chicken)
2 cups sliced mushrooms (this amoung is a total guess. I think I chopped 8 mushrooms. You can ALWAYS use more mushrooms.) Maybe 3 cups.
1/4-1/2 cup whipping cream

Prepare the rigatoni pasta according to directions. While the pasta is cooking, brown the pancetta and mushrooms in a medium-high saucepan with a little EVOO. (I threw in some sliced zucchinni at this stage also). I like my mushrooms to be REALLY cooked. Once you've got all that sufficiently cooked (may require modification/reduction of fats depending on what meat you use), add 1/4 to 1/2 cup (or more) of the cream and reduce the heat to a simmer. Oh and add salt/pepper/garlic to taste. [This is going into a pound of pasta, so be generous]. The cream will thicken a little.
Beat the eggs and parmesean cheese in a large serving bowl. When pasta is fully cooked, drain (reserve 1 cup of water) and then dump the pasta on top of the uncooked egg mix. Stir well to cook the eggs with the hot pasta. Add the meat/cream sauce. Add a little of the reserved water if you want to make it a little more liquid-y (I don't usually do this)
The end! Yum yum.
I rate this meal as "medium cleanup" because it takes 2 stovetop pans and 1 serving dish to prepare. (Plus cutting board and drainer.) Try it and let me know what you think!!

On another note, Trader Joes has a fantastic frozen pasta in a red pepper sauce. It is amazing. If you know how to make a red pepper sauce puh-leeze tell me!

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