Orecchiette Carbonara With Peas Recipes

ORECCHIETTE CARBONARA WITH PEAS

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. In a large sauté pan, place bacon and pancetta in oil over medium-low heat. Cook until bacon is browned and has rendered most of its fat. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of fat, leaving meat in the pan. Scrape in onion and garlic, and sauté until glassy and translucent, then add peas and thyme. Cook for 1 minute, then turn off heat.
• In a large mixing bowl, lightly whisk together eggs, egg yolks and cheese.
• When water comes to a rolling boil, stir in pasta and cook until tender but still a little chewy in the center (like a piece of gum). Ladle out a cup of cooking water, and reserve. Drain pasta, and pour it into sauté pan with bacon; grind coarse pepper over top. Fold pasta into sauce.
• Tip pasta into egg mixture, and fold it all together quickly, so eggs cook and coat pasta with a velvety sauce. Add pea tendrils (or spinach), and fold once more. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Add a little pasta water if it becomes too thick. Spoon into shallow bowls, and sprinkle with parsley.

PASTA CARBONARA WITH ENGLISH PEAS

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt until it tastes like the sea.
• Put the pancetta and a small glug of olive oil in a skillet or Dutch oven that's large enough to hold all the pasta. Cook until the pancetta is lightly browned but still slightly chewy, 9 to 12 minutes (or less if you're using thinly sliced pancetta). Season the pancetta very generously with pepper. Take the skillet off the heat, but don't drain anything-you'll use that fat!
• When the water is at a boil, add the pasta and cook according to the package directions until almost al dente. When the pasta is almost ready, add the shelled peas to the pasta pot.
• Put the skillet back over medium heat and reheat the pancetta gently.
• With a ladle or a measuring cup, scoop out about 1 cup of the pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta and peas. Whisk a couple of tablespoons of the pasta water into the fat and pancetta in the skillet, to make the bacon fat lighter and creamier by emulsifying it with the water. Pull the pan off the heat.
• Whisk some of that warm fat into the beaten egg to temper it (meaning to gently warm up the egg so that it doesn't scramble when you add it to the hot skillet), then whisk the egg into the skillet.
• Dump the pasta, peas, scallions, and pea tendrils (if using) into the skillet. Add both the cheeses and toss everything quickly and thoroughly to blend. Add a few more small splashes of the pasta water and keep tossing until the noodles are cloaked in a creamy sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt or black pepper as needed. Serve right away. This dish does not wait.

ORRECHIETTE CARBONARA

Steps:

• Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel to drain. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat from skillet if necessary. Add leeks and sauté over medium heat until tender, about 6 minutes. Set aside.
• Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid.
• Whisk eggs and 1/2 cup Parmesan in medium bowl to blend; gradually whisk in 1/4 cup pasta cooking liquid. Add pasta to leeks in skillet and stir to heat. Remove skillet from heat. Pour egg mixture over pasta and stir until sauce is just creamy and eggs are no longer raw, about 2 minutes. (Return skillet to very low heat if egg mixture is runny; do not overcook or eggs will curdle.) Add some of remaining 1/4 cup pasta cooking liquid to pasta if needed to moisten. Stir in bacon and parsley. Serve pasta, passing additional cheese separately.