Pasta Carbonara

My friend Marie asked me to make this recipe for the blog since she saw pics of it on instagram. Honestly, pasta carbonara is super easy to make, and tastes delicious. This is a dish however that doesn't reheat terribly well. It's kind of like mac and cheese for adults, super charged with bacon.

So here goes. This is what you need:

I was making a big recipe because we had 5 people eating it for dinner yesterday. You can absolutely reduce the amount!

Pasta (Any kind will work. I've made it with fettuccine, farfalle, macaroni, and in this case rotini) Bacon (I prefer the thick cut kind, I'd use about a regular sized packet)
Heavy whipping cream (In this case I used just over a pint)
Parmesan (I used 2.5 bags, each bag was about 1.5 cups)

Cut your bacon into smallish pieces:

Toss those in your preheated pot. I use a dutch oven, but you could also use a sauce pan or whatever works for you.

Render your bacon, the bacon grease will be the base of your sauce.

Now add a bunch of cream. In this case I used somewhat over a pint of cream. You can kind of figure this out by what the desired proportions are.

Now add about 2.5 bags of parmesan.

Make sure you blend the cream and cheese well. If your sauce seems too runny, add cheese. If your sauce seems too thick, add cream. Also add a lot of black pepper. Carbonara comes from the Italian word for coal. The pasta is named carbonara because of all the pepper looking like coal pieces.

Cook your pasta following directions, and then add the pasta to the sauce. You could serve the sauce on the side, but in my experience it's easier to just mix it all together and then serve.

Boom! You now have pasta carbonara. See how easy this is? If you want a vegetarian version of it you can use butter in place of the bacon and bacon grease.
As I mentioned earlier, this pasta doesn't reheat very well in the microwave. The fat separates and it becomes really greasy/oily. To counteract this you can add a bit of extra whipping cream to the pasta before microwaving it. Then stir it up really well. That should help, but it is still a dish better eaten fresh.


Quickie Summary:

Ingredients:
Bacon (1 pack)
1+ pint heavy whipping cream
2-3 bags parmesan
Pasta

Preparation:
Cut up bacon
Render bacon
Add cream
Add parmesan
Mix thoroughly
Ensure all cheese has been melted
Add cooked pasta to the sauce
Serve

#Day91

October 30th

#Day91 Bacon Carbonara is like Mac and Cheese on steroids for adults.

I love Pasta Carbonara. It is one of my comfort foods. I've been asked to share the recipe/make a walk through of it, which I will do next time I make it. I love mac and cheese, and this is really like mac and cheese with bacon. How could this not be better?

Steak in a Mushroom Cream Sauce

This is one of Charlie's absolute favorite dishes. I learned this during a 3 day cooking class in Switzerland when I was a kid. So I figured I'd share this with all of you. Who knows, you might find this to be a new favorite of yours as well.

So, here's what you need:

Ingredients:
Steak this time we used chuck steak, but petite sirloins are great too. Honestly you can pretty much do this with any steak you feel like. We've also done it with steak strips, etc.
White Wine you can do it with red wine too if you want, but it'll discolor the sauce.
Whipping Cream
Mushrooms fresh or canned
Bouillon/Broth Cubes (i.e. concentrated broth flavoring)
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne
Paprika
Butter or Olive Oil

Preparation:
Season the steak with the pepper, cayenne, salt, and paprika.

Start a sauce pan or dutch oven like I did with some butter, preheat it.

Now toss in the steak, seasoned side down and season the other side.

Sear the steak on both sides.

Once both sides have been seared, remove the steak and reserve on the side.

See the brown bits in the pan? Those are the great flavored bits too. Now you want to deglaze the pan with white wine.

Add a couple of bullion cubes to the mix and reduce.

Once the mixture has reduced and most of the alcohol has cooked off, you add a very generous amount of cream.

Then you add the mushrooms to the mixture.

Let it all boil down for a while to thicken. Then you can add the steaks back in and cook them in the sauce to your desired doneness.

We usually serve it with egg noodles, but you can serve this with any choice of noodles. We usually mix the noodles into the sauce, but you can also serve the sauce over the noodles, or on the side.
This is one of the easiest recipes to make, but has a big bang for your buck.
I hope you enjoy!


Here is the condensed recipe:




Ingredients:
Steak
White Wine
Whipping Cream
Mushrooms fresh or canned
Bouillon/Broth Cubes (i.e. concentrated broth flavoring)
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne
Paprika
Butter or Olive Oil
Pasta

Preparation:
Season the steak with the pepper, cayenne, salt, and paprika.
Preheat sauce pan or dutch oven with some butter or olive oil.
Sear the steak on both sides.
Reserve steak.
Deglaze pan with white wine.
Add bullion/broth cubes to the wine.
Reduce the wine.
Add lots of cream.
Add mushroom.
Cook down until the sauce thickens,
Add the steak back in and cook to preferred doneness.

Serve with pasta, either premix with sauce, or serve on the side.