Tag: home cooking

Posted on

Nigella’s Spaghetti Carbonara

by Nigella. Featured in HOW TO EAT

Photo by Jonathan Lovekin

Introduction

This is my favourite – along with all my other favourites. I love the buttery, eggy creaminess of the sauce, saltily-spiked with hot-cubed bacon: it’s comforting, but not in a sofa-bound kind of way. It feels like proper dinner, only it takes hardly any time to cook. This is my most regular dinner for two: I keep, at all times, the wherewithal to make it in the house.

For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

Ingredients

Serves: 1-2 Metric Cups

  • 200 grams spaghetti
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 100 grams guanciale or pancetta in one piece
  • 4 x 15ml tablespoons dry white vermouth or wine
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 whole egg
  • 4 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • a grind of black pepper
  • a grating of fresh nutmeg
  • approx. 20 grams unsalted butter

Method

  1. Put water on for the pasta and when it’s boiling add a decent amount of salt and then, when it’s boiling again, the spaghetti. Italians say the water pasta cooks in should be as salty as the Mediterranean.
  2. Cut the rind off the pancetta (or guanciale if you’ve been able to get it) and put the rind in the pan with the oil on medium to high while you dice the rest of the pancetta. Then add it and fry for about 5 minutes, maybe more, until it is beginning to crisp. Remove the rind (I like to eat it, but you may not feel the same way.) Throw in the vermouth and let it bubble away for about 3 minutes until you have about 2 teaspoons or so of syrupy wine-infused bacon fat. Remove from the heat.
  3. For the egg mixture, simply beat the yolk, the whole egg, the cheese, the pepper and the nutmeg (the pancetta and the cheese should provide enough salt) together with a fork. When the pasta’s ready, quickly put the bacon pan back on the heat, adding the butter as you do so. Remove a cupful of pasta-cooking water and then drain the spaghetti and tip it into the pancetta pan. Mix it well together, then turn off the heat (take the pan away from the hob if your stove’s electric).
  4. Pour the egg mixture over the bacony pasta and quickly and thoroughly turn the pasta so that it’s all covered in the sauce. Whatever you do, don’t turn the heat back on or you’ll have scrambled eggs; in time, the hot pasta along with the residual heat of the pan will set the eggs to form a thickly creamy sauce that binds and clings lightly to each strand of pasta. Add a tablespoon or so, going gently, of the pasta cooking water as you toss it all together. This will help make the sauce creamier.

This makes two platefuls: it’s up to you whether you conclude this is enough for one or two of you.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/spaghetti-carbonara

Posted on

Dublin Bay prawns, lovage purée and boxty recipe. @Anahaugh

 

 
 

 

 

Dublin Bay prawns are also known as langoustines and are served here with traditional Irish potato pancakes called boxty.

By Anna Haugh
From Saturday Kitchen
 

Shopping list

 

Preparation time

less than 30 mins

Cooking time

10 to 30 mins

Serves

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the kale and cabbage

For the lovage purée

For the boxty

For the Dublin Bay prawns

Method

  1. To make the kale and cabbage, mix the vinegar, oils, sugar and garlic together in a small bowl and season with salt. Dress the kale and cabbage with the vinaigrette and set aside.

  2. To make the lovage purée, heat the cream in a saucepan and add the lovage and kale. Stir well, add the salt and sugar and cook until the leaves have wilted. Transfer to a food processor or blender and blitz to a purée.

  3. To make the boxty, mix the mashed potato, grated potato and flour in a large bowl. Whisk in the milk and egg and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the potato mixture to make a thin pancake, slightly thicker than a crêpe. Cook for 2–3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Use a round biscuit cutter to make 4 small pancakes.

  4. To make the Dublin Bay prawns, bring a saucepan of water to the boil and blanch the prawns for 5 seconds. Immediately plunge the prawns into iced water and then peel away the shells and devein. Heat the butter, garlic and lemon juice in a frying pan and cook the prawns until they are pink and cooked through.

  5. To serve, place the kale and cabbage on warmed plates and top with the prawns. Dot the lovage purée around the edges of the plates and finish with the lemon zest and radish. Serve the boxty on the side.

  1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/dublin_bay_prawns_lovage_75630