A few weeks ago, I wrote about one of my favorite go-to Italian dinners, spaghetti aglio e olio. Well here is another one I simply adore, my vegetarian take on the classic pasta carbonara.
I love pasta carbonara. That egg-cheese-pancetta sauce is just the perfect comfort food as far as I'm concerned. And luckily, I can still enjoy carbonara with my part-time vegetarian lifestyle. There are multiple ways to make carbonara vegetarian, but my personal favorite method is with zucchini. In my opinion, it blends the best with the pasta--and who doesn't love cooking with zucchini?
As with my spaghetti aglio e olio recipe, this recipe is designed for one very hungry person or two people with moderate appetites. Adjust ingredients accordingly.
Once you get going, things move very, very quickly with this dish, so prepare all of the ingredients before you even start boiling the pasta. You'll need a medium zucchini. Tonight, I'm julienning the zucchini, but sometimes I like to grate it. You can also slice it--whatever works for you. You'll also need about 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese. When I make this dish, I like to buy a wedge of the good stuff and grate it myself. And I also like to add chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley and basil. You don't need the herbs, but they only make it better.
Also, one egg, whisked well. Sometimes, carbonara recipes call for just the yolk, but I have never seen a reason not to use the entire egg.
Now, the pasta. I'm using 6 ounces of whole wheat spaghetti.
Boil the spaghetti until it's al dente in
generously salted water. A good handful or two of salt will do--if the water doesn't taste like the ocean, there's no point in salting it at all, because you're going to have some bland-ass pasta.
While the spaghetti is boiling, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini and add a light sprinkling of salt and freshly ground black pepper.
The zucchini is going to cook for about 5 minutes or so, or until it's nice and tender. At that point, you can pull it off the heat.
When the spaghetti is done, reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water and drain the spaghetti. Add half of the reserved pasta water to the zucchini and put it back on the stove over high heat.
When it starts to boil, add the spaghetti and toss until there is no water left at the bottom of the pan.
Then, remove the pan from the heat again and add the egg. Stir it vigorously--the heat already in the pan will cook it, but you don't want scrambled eggs in your pasta. To make it saucier, add some more of the pasta water. And, of course, stir in the cheese and, finally, the herbs.
And there's a very quick vegetarian spaghetti carbonara, proving once again that a meal doesn't have to be complicated to be delicious. Enjoy!
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