Pasta Carbonara

Sunday, 15th February 2015

I'm not normally a fan of eggy things, but I fancied a change and we had the ingredients for this. I looked at several recipes and some added the egg then the bacon to the drained pasta, and some the pasta then the egg to the bacon - a bit of an italian version of the tea-in-first vs. milk-in-first debate I guess.
I elected to add the pasta to the bacon pan, followed by the egg mixture. Although I had the pan off the heat it was clearly still too hot and the egg scrambled almost immediately. The flavour was good, but the texture and look was not very appetising. More care and more of the pasta liquid needed if I ever do this again.

Pizza - take 2

Monday, 5th May 2014

Second attempt. I tried dough based on a Jamie Oliver recipe, but he uses a kilo of flour to make 8 pizzas in one go, so scaling down for one small one was tough. This time my dough started very sticky and I had to add a lot of flour to get it workable.
Again, it rose nicely, but the dough was so elastic I had a devil of a job getting it rolled out, hence the unusual shape! My toppings were tomato sauce (not a patch on Monika's), roccolo cheese, bacon and parma ham. Not a good choice as it turns out, as the flavours had just power and no subtlety.
This time I heated the stone first, which clearly helped, but I should have taken it out of the oven sooner. The base was hard rather than crispy, and the toppings a little burned. Somewhere in between the first two attempts is needed.

Pasta with Bacon and Cream

Tuesday, 11th March 2014

and a little basil. Very straightforward, but very good.

Fry-up

Sunday, 23rd February 2014

We were thinking of going out to eat but, at the last minute, decided to stay in. By change, the combination of food we happened to have on hand, made a lovely fry up. Very tasty with a couple of dark beers.

Pasta with Bacon and Mushrooms

Monday, 22nd July 2013

Soften onions and garlic, add bacon and fry, then add mushrooms and cook through. Add a little wine and reduce, then add cream and bubble until thickened. Season and sprinkle chopped parsley. Pretty simple but very nice.

Swordfish steak with bacon

Sunday, 23rd June 2013

Bacon goes with everything. The swordfish was quickly pan fried with lots of white Kampot Pepper. I had it just with relish and some good bread. Delicious.

Pasta with bacon and tomato

Sunday, 3rd February 2013

Back from a weekend in Heidelberg we hadn't the energy to go out to eat, so I made pasta with what I could find in the fridge.
I browned some bacon very thinly sliced from a large piece, then added finely chopped onion and garlic and allowed them to soften. Then added quartered cherry tomatoes and cooked for 5 minutes, then lots of cream and allowed it to heat through. Seasoned with black pepper and a very small amount of nutmeg and ground chili. Garnished with some slices of tomato. Absolutely delicious!

Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Wednesday, 20th July

Not really authentic but very tasty. I used bacon instead of pancetta, because that is what I had.
Other than that I stuck pretty much to the standard recipe. Fry the meat until almost crispy, remove and cook onions and hot pepper in the same pan for a while, then add tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes or so, then return the meat and heat through.
The half a dried chilli I put in was almost too much, and left the lips tingly and the forehead sweaty. But in a good way!