Pasta Carbonara is said to be pure Italian comfort food. The basics of the classic dish are bacon, eggs, pasta, and parmesean. The bacon is obviously problematic in my world as far as kashrut goes. The raw eggs, which are cooked in the pasta, while not a problem, it still made me nervous.
Some people choose to use some of the fakin’ bacon. I choose not to, only because the texture doesn’t work quite right ever. Have no fear though, Bacon Salt is here. Bacon Salt is a spice mixture that gives your food that yummy eerie flavor of bacon. I just bought it and thought that a cabonara would be the perfect dish to test this spice out.
Below is the recipe I came up with…
Kosher Carbonara
Ingredients:
1 lb. spaghetti
3 eggs
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
8 mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup of peas
1/2 stick of butter
salt
salt
pepper
1/2 cup of white wine
1/2 cup of starchy pasta water
1/2 cup of starchy pasta water
2 tbsp. bacon salt
1 cup parmesean
olive oil
olive oil
Cook the pasta to al dente in a pot of salted water.
In pan, saute the garlic. Add in the mushrooms and peas. Continue to saute. Add in one tablepoon of the bacon salt. Now add the wine and the cooking water.
In a separate bowl, mix up the eggs with the parmesean cheese.
Drain the hot pasta into a large bowl. Quickly add in the egg and cheese mixture and stir, stir, stir. Now mix in the mushroom/pea mixture. Keep stirring. The pasta will cook the egg, but you don’t want the egg to scramble. Add in the butter. Stir some more. You should have some yummy creamy pasta.
Serve on a plate. Spinkle on additional bacon salt and parmesean.
It was very tasty. I have never tasted real carbonara, so I have nothing to compare it to, but this was very good.
About Hindy Garfinkel