Recipe 22- Tomato Basil Carbonara
Good morning! I hope you are enjoying your easter weekend with friends and family and hopefully.. Delicious food!
I have very much welcomed the warmer weather we have received the last few days as I have been healing from a horrible ear infection. For the last 10 days I haven't been far from my bed, so I was really looking forward to getting back into my kitchen and cooking up a delicious dish.
When my husband came home the other day from work he was happy to see me back in the kitchen and the Michael Smith book open. Every week my husband, friends and family all look forward to these dishes and it felt like forever since I had cooked one.
This recipe was such a nice introduction back into the swing of things, not to mention it was quick!
I swear I read over the instructions for this recipe about 5-6 times because when I saw you are mixing raw egg into hot pasta and expecting it to cook and make a cream sauce.. I thought "no, that can't be right".
So here we go on my experience making this delicious pasta dish.
First I gathered my ingredients, no too many this time which was great..I had everything I needed on hand.
I first chopped my ENORMOUS cloves of garlic, the recipe called for 4.. however I thought 2 of these suckers should be sufficient. I picked these up the other weekend at the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival. They are grown locally by a company called "Big Ass Garlic" .. they are not kidding haha.
Chopping into that garlic made me really miss cooking, it smelled great! I also halved my cherry tomatoes.
Next was this mysterious "cream sauce".
I say that just because I had no idea how this would come together in the end. I have never seen a sauce made this way, but hey, this all about learning and getting out of your comfort zone in the kitchen. I whisked together eggs, fresh grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. So far so good.
Next was getting my chopped garlic into a small saucepan with a little olive oil. When this garlic was heated up, man was it ever potent. I was glad I went with just the 2 cloves. After a few minutes I turned the heat off. While I was working on all the prep, I had filled my large pot with water and lots of salt for the pasta. By this time, the pasta was ready to go in.
After the pasta was cooked, here is where I started questioning myself. "So I put this egg mixture into my drained hot pasta, and magically it will turn into sauce?" Ok!
Chef Michael says to reserve some of your starchy pasta water to make everything come together smoothly. I literally measured it out this time, because I was too nervous to eyeball it in the pot. I didn't want a pasta soup ;)
In it goes. Chef Michael says to work quickly with this step, so I frantically mustered up some energy and stirred everything in. And within a few seconds.. magic happened! SAUCE! Holy it worked!
I quickly grabbed my cherry tomatoes and tossed them in. Everything was mixed together with some trusty tongs and I had a whole pot of yummy goodness.
Before I even called my husband and kids for dinner, I may of sampled. 2 or 3 or 5 noodles. So creamy and delicious!
Now you may be asking yourself.. where is the Basil?
I realized that I had not chopped my basil yet and went to grab it from the fridge, only to find some very poor looking basil. It was unfortunately not edible at this point. With the meal already being ready for serving, I didn't have time to go and grab some. This is the FIRST TIME EVER I have left out an ingredient in these recipes. But let me tell you.. it was still AWESOME!
This meal was put together in about 15 mins. Perfect for the week day when you may just be getting home from work or school.
My husband and kids were very excited to have a Chef Michael dinner after a long 10 days of 'boring' food haha.
And to set the record straight, my husband had 3 plates of this dish! It was a huge hit to say the least.
I will be making this dish again, as its a nice alternative to the usual spaghetti dinner that usually shows up weekly in most homes.
I actually said that this dish reminds me of a something you find in a restaurant, its that good!
As always my compliments to the Chef and cheers, to you my friends!
Keep an eye out for Recipe 23- Pan fried crispy crusty Whitefish
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