After a through research on how to cook the perfect carbonara, and all the philosophy behind it, I've come up with a variation on that which brings some green ingredients to give it a lighter touch.
Now of course, this is not the kind of dish you cook if you already can't get into your favorite jeans anymore, and if you do fit, cooking it too often will ensure you won't...
With that sorted out, here's the recipe for about 4 portions:
250 g spaghetti
150 g pancetta or bacon cut in small cubes, smoked or non smoked (purists on the link above say non smoked)
4 stalks of celery, sliced 3mm thick
half a medium sizd courgette, sliced longitudinally, then into 2-3cm stripes
a few chopped spring onions (optional)
1 large clove of garlic
3 egg yolks
fresh thyme (leaves from 3-4 stalks)
freshly ground pepper (be generous)
75g freshly grated parmesan
NO CREAM
In a pan, fry the chopped garlic in some oil olive on medium heat, then remove garlic when browned.
Add the chopped bacon/pancetta, and onion, stir fry for about 5min or so, then add the celery, stir for another 5 min or so then add the courgette and the thyme and stir again for a few minutes (up to 5 :p )
Meanwhile boil the spaghetti whole, in a generous pot with plenty of salted water (about a teaspoon of salt for 2litres).
Make sure you don't overboil, you want them al dente.
Now comes the tricky part:
Reserve a coffee cup worth of pasta water while draining the spaghetti. Make sure they're well drained then put back in the pan and mix thoroughly. While you do this, the pan may still be on the heated stove.
Mix the pepper with the egg yolks.
Now REMOVE the pan from the heat and pour the egg yolks evenly over the spaghetti, then mix vigurously. Immediately after this, pour the hot pasta water (up to 100ml or so) and continue mixing until absorbed.
Now mix in the parmesan and voila!
Enjoy!
