Carbonara pasta with zucchini

carbonara is simply one of the great classic Italian pasta dishes and this is how I have adapted it for myself the magic ingredient in any carbonara though is egg if the sauce is basically a custard we'll need 1 egg yolk per person and I'm making 2 portions I always just crack the egg and pass the yolk between the two halves until the white just kind of slimes its way out doesn't matter if you retain a little white in there in the United States carbonara is often a glorified cream sauce cream is not traditional in Italy over the years I've settled on using a very small amount of milk not cream this is really just for the color you'll see why later now we need a huge amount of pepper some people say the carbon in the name of this dish derives from the black color of all that pepper that probably isn't true but this is still good with ton of pepper in it likewise a ton of pecorino or Parmesan cheese I basically just fill my measuring cup up with it stir that up smooth and there's my sauce - one crucial ingredient yet to come I like a lot of garlic in this so I'll just cut the root ends off like five cloves crush them with the side of the knife to loosen the skins pop them out and hmm look at that that's the green sprout that grows in the core of garlic cloves as they age everybody says you got to take that out because it's bitter I don't know why we just accept such dictums when we can simply taste for ourselves yeah that's not nearly as bad as people lead you to believe the only time I worry about taking it out is when I'm gonna have some raw garlic dominating a dish and even then I think I'm being too cautious just chop all that up a little bit of fresh herb I've got some sage and rosemary you could do all of this prep while your pasta is cooking but carbonara is kind of tricky and time-sensitive in its final stages so this is one of those times when I like to do all of my prep in advance and I like to have a lot of vegetable in my carbonara not traditional but I don't need to be eating so many damn carbs one big zucchini or a couple smaller ones credit where it's due I got this idea years ago from a Jamie Oliver's show stem and blossom ends off and I think a lot of knife injuries happen when people try to cut round things that then roll out of control the way I deal with something like this is to hook my stabilizing hand above and around the knife once it's in half you don't have to deal with that wobbly side anymore just lay it on the cut side and I'll cut this into quarters inside each of these is the seedy core this part of the zucchini tends to cook faster than the rest and go kind of slimy so I just like to shave off that triangle of seeds and toss it out if you do this you'll have a nice firm regularly shaped piece that cooks really evenly I want my zucchini crisp I'm cutting them down further into pieces roughly the size and shape of the pasta I like to use for this which is penne prep is now done and just incorporating that much of edge has already knocked a lot of calories out of the dish to come I'm also getting control of my excessive carb intake thanks to the sponsor of this video magic spoon cereal my whole life I've loved sugary kids cereals and I really thought that I was done being able to eat them until I tasted magic spoon look at this zero sugar 11 grams of protein and only three net carbs 110 calories of serving its grain free gluten free soy free what the heck is it made out of then well believe it or not it's basically protein powder it's milk protein that they have scienced into a cereal the texture is almost identical to normal cereal and the flavor is identical I think you got your cocoa fruity frosted and blueberry these colors are from vegetable juice though you'd never guess it from tasting these stay crunchy and milk or whatever milk substitutes you're using you got a try magic spoon you can order some online and get free shipping by using my promo code Ragusa or you can go to magic spoon com slash Ragusa if you don't like it they'll refund your money no questions asked but I think you're gonna like it it's what I'm having for breakfast every morning these days that code and URL are in the description Thank You magic spoon now time to actually cook this carbonara a pot of salted water for the pasta goes on high heat and while that comes to a boil I will grab a much bigger pan where the finished dish will be assembled and into this I will simply snip my bacon with kitchen shears you can do that with a knife it's fine the thicker slice to the bacon is the better IMHO maybe three ounces of bacon per person 85 grams a person carbonara is traditionally made with guanciale or pancetta but any cured fatty pork situation is going to be fine you could skip this and just use some olive oil if you want to keep it meatless but I might also consider a meatless imitation bacon I've got that in a cold pan and now I will turn the heat on medium fat starts to render or melt out of the tissue at a much lower temperature than meat starts to brown so starting it in a cold pan gives the fat a good head start I want lots of rendered bacon fat in my sauce and I don't want huge blubbery pieces of solid fats swimming around in the sauce so I am rendering that fat water is boiling so in goes like three ounces of pasta per person again 85 grams I'm using chickpea pasta because I'm no fun anymore it's higher protein lower carb I would cook any pasta for this dish a minute or two less than what the package recommends because it's gonna cook some more in the pan if your bacon ever seems like it's out running your pasta like it's gonna burn before the pasta is ready just take it off the heat for a second but I like to get my bacon pieces really dark and crispy and get a lot of bacon fond building on the bottom of the pan more than I suspect is traditional merely one minute before draining my pasta I will stir in my zucchini you could hit those with some seasonings but I think they'll get enough from the salty bacon forgive me I need to tick-tock literally right before I drain my pasta I will stir in my garlic and turn the heat off time to drain the pasta but first I will put a little glass into my sink carbonara sauce is generally made with starchy salty pasta water and I think this is a very convenient way to retain some of it just try to catch some of it in the glass as you drain through a gap in the lid netsuke nee might seem very undercooked but by the time it actually hits the plate it'll be perfect and in goes the pasta to fry for a second the bacon fat see that bacon found i will now deglaze that with the pasta water I want to be conservative about the pasta water I can always add more later if the sauce is too tight but at the same time you want enough in there because the pan needs to be sloshy before the egg mixture goes in that will help it integrate more smoothly and the starch will make it less likely that the egg will curdle and here we go this is the tricky part stir stir stir stir or you'll instantly have scrambled eggs remember my heat is off you got to give this sauce just enough heat to make it cook to thicken but if it gets too hot it will start to curdle and go grainy in fact let me show you what that looks like a little more pasta water and the sauce if it's looking too thick and goes the herbs at the last second and look at this see the texture of that sauce it's gritty it's grainy this happens when you let carbonara sauce get too hot and there's really no way to fix it once it's happened let me show you how to prevent that I'll do this one with real pasta just so you can see how that looks to let it fry a little bit deglaze the pan with pasta water and then this time I'll take the pan all the way off the hot burner and wait for it to stop bubbling is a lot safer letting the pot cool way down before the egg mixture goes in stir stir stir and now the egg is smoothly integrated but you can see it hasn't cooked yet it's still really liquid now I will simply return the pan to the heat stir constantly and watch it really close in an instant you will see it thicken and go custardy and the second that happens back off the heat this comes adjust with more pasta water remember that the sauce will thicken as it cools so it should look a little too loose in the pan herbs in at the last second and now that is perfect note the kind of cafe au lait color of the sauce that's because of the milk I like a lot of dissolved bacon fond in my carbonara so without the milk to balance that brown color the sauce would be unappetizing Lea Brown do yours more traditionally if you want but however you make it ding that is a classic for a reason

Channel: Adam Ragusea

Views: 799,680

Rating: 4.8051 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: O9Y5NwJYFzI

Length: 7min 29sec (449 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 02 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/TaigaEye]

Lmao I don’t care whether or not he calls it Carbonara but there is gonna be an angry mob for sure

[u/2Liberal4You]

This is carbonara, I don't know why people are complaining. Who cares that he added a splash of milk (and if zucchini is your problem, you need to eat healthier)? The splash of milk is less than 0.1% of the dish, and outside of color, it's probably completely unnoticable in the finished product.

[u/GuyThirteen]

I swear that carbonara is the authenticity time bomb. Every time a video of it pops up the comments section goes wild. Adam's made it very clear that the carbonara in the video is not traditional and that he's not pushing it as an authentic carbonara. If it makes people feel better it can be thought of as "carbonara-inspired pasta"

[u/hintersly]

As far as I know or care, a pasta d’aide that has cheese, fat, and eggs is a carbonara. Extra herbs and stuff just makes it “Carbonara - Now With Herbs!”

Like, adding red pepper flakes or something to marinara sauce is still marinara sauce

[u/Nadurtha]

He could call it shit on a plate for all I care. It looks delicious.

[u/californiamp3]

yeah i ended up watching it, my bad for making assumptions before giving it a chance, sorry.

[u/PH03N1X-P]

Loved the vid , what other veggies would be good with it? I could think of bell pepper strips , mabye while putting the garlic so it retains crunch?..