Rosemary Bacon Carbonara
This Rosemary Bacon Carbonara is ready in under 15 minutes and will absolutely satisfy your pasta craving! Easy to make, very little prep or clean up. What is not to like. I love this dish for those busy week days where you need to get something satisfying on the table, fast! Well this pasta dish is perfect for you!
There are very few ingredients in this pasta, but it definitely doesn’t lack in flavour. The base of the pasta flavour is made from the smoked bacon. This acts as the base layer and then we build more flavour using garlic, onion, rosemary, parmesan, salt, and pepper. This is a very comforting dish, and what I love about it is that it gives you the ability to sneak vegetables in like mushrooms and spinach!
Building the sauce
There is no added sauce in this pasta. We build the sauce using the water the pasta cooked in, the fat from the bacon, and a scrambled egg. In Italy they call the water that the pasta cooks in “Golden water”. The starch that comes off of the pasta while cooking adds amazing structure to the sauce. When we then add in the scrambled egg, this provides additional fat and mouthfeel to the pasta dish. It is important to remove the pasta from the heat when we add in the egg. We want to stir the pasta around and allow the egg to coat all of the pasta and ingredients and slowly cook and become one with the pasta water.
Let’s breakdown the ingredients
- Whole wheat pasta – Feel free to use what ever pasta you enjoy. On weeknights I tend to use whole wheat pasta to make it more nutrient dense.
- Smoked Bacon – The smokier better in my opinion. Try to use as high of a quality of bacon as you can.
- Rosemary – I love the flavour and smell of rosemary. It is a strong herb so don’t go over board.
- Mushrooms & Spinach – This pasta lends itself to most vegetables, but I love the earthiness from the mushrooms and the colour and nutrients spinach brings to the table.
- Egg- In a dish scramble up an egg. This will help build our sauce and add fat to the dish.
- Seasoning – Parm, salt, pepper, chilli flakes, help to round out the flavour.
- Pasta water- Always add a ladle or two of pasta water to your pastas. It helps the sauce coat the pasta and provides better mouth feel to the sauce.
Ingredients:
- 1 package whole wheat spaghetti
- 3 slabs thick cut bacon, diced
- 2 tbs fresh rosemary, chopped
- 1/2 white onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cup fresh spinach
- 6 mushrooms, sliced
- 1 egg, scrambled in a bowl
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbs pepper
- 2 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 cup pasta water
Instructions:
- Kick things off by cooking your pasta in salted water. Once done be sure to save 1 cup of the water that the pasta cooked in.
- While pasta is cooking place a large pan over medium high heat and drop in the diced bacon. Allow the fat to render and the bacon to cook. After the bacon is cooked, pour out some of the bacon fat but leave about 1 tbs remaining.
- In the same pan drop in the garlic, rosemary, and onion. Pause a moment and enjoy the smell! After 30 seconds add in the mushrooms and spinach.
- At this point you can add in the cooked pasta and mix well. Pour in 3/4 cup of the pasta water and stir. You can turn off the heat after about 3 minutes of cooking and stirring.
- Remove pasta pan from heat and pour in the scrambled egg. Using a wooden spot or tongs move the pasta around. You want the residual heat of the pasta to "cook" the egg. Keep moving and stirring the pasta for about a minute.
- Add in the black pepper, chilli flakes, and parm. Taste the pasta and then add in salt as needed. Enjoy!
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