From Weeknight Experiment to Any Day Favourite

Even though we love cooking and creating recipes together, sometimes we don’t want to spend all evening in the kitchen after a long day. Like most people, these are the days we look around the kitchen to try to make something quick, delicious, and nutritious with what we already have on hand. Nights like these are when our creativity is fuelled by our desire to stay put, and it can sometimes lead to pleasant surprises. This recipe was created on one of these nights.

Pasta is a staple in our home and with ingredients like bacon, parmesan cheese, and eggs on hand, we were well on our way to making a quick carbonara. However, we wanted to include some sort of vegetable to make a more balanced meal. The bag of frozen peas in our freezer seemed like an easy addition; but, us being us, we wanted to do something beyond throwing peas in a kitchen staple carbonara. That was when we decided to blend the peas and incorporate them into the sauce. The result was a vibrant green, creamy pasta that didn’t taste like a quick weeknight meal.

In addition to being delicious, this pasta is a more nutritious version of our decadent Italian favourite. Using the whole egg adds more protein to the dish than the traditional egg yolk and the addition of peas adds plant-based protein, lots of fibre, and vitamin C.

Being easy, delicious, and nutritious, it’s easy to see how this weeknight experiment was a hit. We loved it so much that it has been a regular part of our rotation for years, and we know that you will love it too.

Carbo-gnarly

Raw eggs, cheese, pasta water, and bacon fat come together to make one of the great pasta sauces, but... how? Carbonara is a dish that celebrates the technique of the cook, and thankfully, this technique is both accessible and fun for beginners to master. To make sure you nail it the first time, it's helpful to know the science behind the sauce.

Basically, eggs are a yolk and a white, which essentially are two bags of proteins suspended in water at a ratio of 1:1000, protein to water. The proteins themselves are long, chain-like entities that have a structure like a tangled phone USB wire, or a bundle of spaghetti. Heat, acid, or agitation can untangle these proteins; What this does is create even smaller "pockets" of water wrapped by proteins, allowing the mixture to gain a structure and stiffen from a liquid to a solid or semi-solid. Phew, now what does that mean in non-lab speech?

The rule of thumb for any egg based dish is to avoid overcooking them and carrying coagulation too far. Overcooking can result in rubbery eggs or possibly a watery mixture with bits of solid egg in the midst - not an appetizing thought. Cooking eggs until they are just barely done lends a silky, delicate, luxurious texture to the egg, as the proteins have not fully stiffened or broken down, and the egg will still be a suspension of protein and water.

Knowing this, we can get into the science of making a carbonara sauce. The steps are as follows:

• Beat an egg, cheese, and some pepper in a small dish, making a sort of paste.
• When the pasta is done, add it to a pan that is freshly off heat (preferably with the bacon fat still in there) and, only using the residual heat of the pan at first, mix the pasta, fat, and egg and cheese paste into the pasta, twirling the pasta as you mix to create friction between the starch of the pasta and the fat of the bacon lard.
• Take reserved, still-hot, starchy pasta water from cooking the noodles, and add a little bit to the pan at a time while twirling and stirring the pasta. This has three effects:
  1. First, the starch will continue to emulsify into the oil, incorporating more tasty bacon fat into the sauce,
  2. The salted pasta water will season the eggs in a gentle way, both making the egg more tender and lowering the temperature needed to cook the egg through, and  
  3. The hot liquid will, very gently, cook the egg in the sauce. This will keep the sauce from curdling, and transform it into a silky sauce that permeates the entire dish.

Keep adding hot water until the sauce is the desired consistency, and you will have an amazing and easy sauce for a weeknight.

How to Make It

Cook the Pasta and Bacon

In a large pot, bring heavily salted water to a boil. Add your pasta of choice to the boiling water and cook according to package directions. We like to use a longer pasta shape like linguine or spaghetti for this recipe, but feel free to use whatever shape you like. Drain the pasta, reserving some pasta water, and set aside.

Meanwhile, add the bacon to a cold pan and cook on medium heat until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Remove the pan from the heat to cool slightly before assembling the final pasta.

Prep the Peas and Sauce

Take half the peas and a pinch of salt, and blend until smooth using an immersion blender. If needed, you can add a small amount of water to help blend the peas.

Meanwhile, whisk together the parmesan, egg, and pepper together until well-combined.

Add the blended peas to the egg mixture and whisk together.

Assemble the Pasta

Add the pasta to the pan and toss to coat in the remaining bacon fat.

While still tossing, add the egg mixture to the pasta.

Slowly add the reserved pasta water until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.

Add the remaining peas and the bacon to the pasta and mix until well-combined.

Serve immediately and enjoy!