Pasta alla Carbonara

Bacon.  Eggs.  Cheese.  They're three of my favorite ingredients.  And let's be honest - it's pretty difficult to think of a way to improve upon that classic combo.

Unless, of course, you decide to combine bacon, eggs, and cheese with pasta.  Then all bets are off.

Traditional pasta alla carbonara is made with guanciale (pork jowl) and tossed with raw egg.  But I thought I'd make a more weeknight friendly version of the recipe by substituting bacon for the guanciale and topping the finished pasta with a poached egg.

Pasta alla Carbonara

6 oz applewood smoked bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 lb rigatoni
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp freshly ground pepper

Poached Eggs

1 cup distilled white vinegar
2 eggs

Cook bacon until crispy in a large frying pan over medium-low heat.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to a paper towel lined plate and allow to drain.  Set the pan with the bacon fat aside to cool slightly.

In the mean time, cook pasta in a large saucepan until al dente.  Using pasta server, remove cooked pasta from water and transfer to a large bowl.  Set 1/3 cup of pasta cooking water aside in a bowl, and then reduce heat on the remaining water in the pan to medium-low (simmering). 

Add 1/2 cup vinegar to two small bowls.  Crack one egg into each bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.

Gently drop one egg (and vinegar) into the still boiling pasta water and allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes (the whites should be firm but the yolk should be runny).  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the poached egg to a paper towel lined plate.  Repeat with the second egg.

Melt butter with freshly ground pepper (I used the pepper blend pictured below) in the frying pan with reserved bacon fat over medium heat.  Add pasta, parmesan, and reserved pasta cooking water and cook until the cheese has melted and the sauce has thickened.

Transfer pasta to bowls.  Top with cooked bacon and poached eggs.

Cut into poached egg and allow the yolk to coat pasta.  Toss to distribute and enjoy!

Cacio e Pepe = Pasta Perfection

Sorry I have been such a lame blogger as of late.  After my last post, I spent several weeks traveling (both for work and for fun) and once I got back, I was super behind and had a ton of things to catch up on, both at work and at home.

Now that things are finally settling down (and I am strapped for cash from my latest travel extravaganza), I am finally getting back into cooking - which is good news for both my wallet and my blog! 

My latest cooking inspiration has been coming from one of the recent issues of Bon Appetit, which had the following promise on the cover:

Um, yes please!  (You can expect to see lots of pastas coming your way in the next few posts people.)

According to this issue of the magazine, the real secret to restaurant-worthy pasta is all about combining the sauce and the pasta together in a single pan and letting them meld together.

For my first attempt at this technique, I attempted a traditional cucina povera (or "peasant cuisine") style dish - in a nutshell, this is basically a dish that requires very few ingredients but is still rich in flavor.  I chose Cacio e Pepe, which is literally translated to "cheese and pepper", and it is honestly just about that simple.  But don't let the simplicity of the recipe or the cucina povera nature of the dish fool you into thinking this is just some ho hum dish - you'll find it hard to believe just how rich and flavorful cheese and freshly cracked pepper can be!

Cacio e Pepe

1 lb spaghetti
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
3/4 cup finely grated parmesan
1/3 cup finely grated pecorino romano

Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot and cook spaghetti until 2 minutes shy of "al dente" (according to package cooking instructions).  Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.

Melt 2 Tbsp butter in large frying pan over medium heat: 

Add pepper and cook until toasted (approximately one minute): 

Add 1/2 cup of reserved pasta water to pan and simmer until reduced by about half: 

Add pasta, remaining Tbsp of butter:

and both cheeses: 

Reduce heat to low and toss with tongs (or, if you are brave and not afraid of possibly having to scrub down your range after, by doing those fancy pan flips you always see celebrity chefs doing) until the cheese is melted and the pasta is coated with sauce.  (If the sauce seems too dry, add more pasta water):

Spoon into bowls and serve.

Bon appetite!

Dinner a Deux

This year marked our first Valentine's Day as a married couple where we lived in the same city (imagine that).  Last year, Paul flew out to Salt Lake and we had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, The Paris Bistro.  While usually this restaurant can do no wrong in my book, their Valentine's menu was a complete let down for me.  It was a prix-fixe menu (so the options were very limited) and the items they did have on offer were surprisingly underwhelming and no where near as good as their usual offerings.  To top it all off, at $65 per person, it was no bargain.

After looking around at my favorite restaurants here in San Diego and seeing that all of them were offering prix-fixe menus for Valentine's Day, we decided to spend this year making a feast for ourselves at home (in an effort to avoid repeating the disappointment of last year's experience).

I put Paul in charge of the first course, and he did not disappoint when he decided to assemble a cheese board with the following cheeses:

For Christmas, my sister Renee got us these awesome cheese knives from Sur La Table:

And the cheese board gave us an excuse to finally use them - thanks Renee!

It was hard to pick a favorite between them since they were all delicious. The gouda was so interesting with the bits of black truffle infused throughout (as you can see here):

And the taleggio tasted truly amazing served atop a baguette with smoked salmon:

And it tasted even better paired with champagne, of course:

For the main course, I made my ravioli with brown butter walnut sauce that I have featured on the site before:

 

I used store bought pasta instead of making my own from scratch since it was a week night and it tasted great:

We accompanied dinner with one of my favorite wines, which we first tried in Portugal on our backpacking trip through Europe:

And for dessert, I tried my hand at making a souffle for the first time.  I have always been terrified of trying to make a souffle since you always hear horror stories about how if you so much as sneeze, let alone slam a door, a souffle will collapse in the oven and be destroyed.  Since I was scared and didn't have high hopes of it working out, I just made a simple chocolate souffle.  But I am happy to say, it is one of the easiest desserts that I have ever made (and delicious too), so stay tuned for more complicated flavor combos soon!

To start with, you will need a souffle pan (I got mine at Crate and Barrel for $10):

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Rub the inside of the souffle pan with butter, then coat with sugar, like so:

Take half a bag of bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli):

 And melt them in a double boiler (I don't have a double boiler, so I made my own version of one by placing a glass mixing bowl over gently boiling water and it worked just fine):

Stir the chocolate as it melts so that it doesn't burn:

And heat until it is completely melted:

Then add 3 egg yolks and stir to mix (it will look grainy and similar to brownie mix batter, as pictured below):

Next, add a pinch of salt to 6 egg whites (I'm not sure exactly how much a pinch of salt is - lucky, I have a measuring spoon just in case):

Whisk salt and egg whites together at medium speed until they just hold soft peaks, like so:

Add 1/3 cup of sugar and beat at medium speed to mix.  Increase speed to high and beat until the whites just hold stiff peaks, like so:

Add 1/2 of egg white mixture to chocolate mixture and mix thoroughly to combine:

Add chocolate and egg white mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold carefully (so as not to deflate egg whites) to mix:

Then pour the batter into the souffle dish:

And bake for 25 minutes (whatever you do, DO NOT open the oven to check on the souffle or it will collapse).  When it is finished it, should have risen to the top of the pan (it will start to sink almost immediately after you remove it from the oven, so don't worry if it doesn't stay tall and fluffy for long):

Since it was Valentine's Day, I decorated my souffle with rose pedals, powdered sugar, and a heart:

I served it with Rosa Regale sparkling red wine (which I have posted about before):

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day!