Dinner Diaries: Green Carbonara

When people learn that I went to culinary school in Italy, their eyes tend to open up wide with excitement. "The food must have been AMAZING," they say.

And it was, mostly because the ingredients we had to work with were all incredible. But to be honest, my roommates and I spent those months living primarily on gallons of cheap red wine and quick, cheap dishes like pasta carbonara and pizza margarita.

Actually, the pizza we usually bought at a little restaurant located near our school that offered a 10 Euro special of one pizza and one glass of wine. But the carbonara? Well that we made ourselves ALL the time.

It was cheap, quick, and just as suitable at 4 in the afternoon after a long day of classes, as it was at 4 in the morning after a long night of drinking wine and fending off the advances of enthusiastic Italian gentlemen.

When you spend several days eating the same thing (and when you live in an apartment full of future chefs), you start to get creative. It wasn't long before the three of us started to add lots of random things to our carbonara recipe to make it just a little more exciting--the roommate from Austin who loved spice would load up her dish with cayenne and hot sauce, while the other one would top it with a pile of grated cheese and a douse of fresh cream. If we could afford it (and we rarely could), we'd add chicken to make it a more substantial dish. At some point, I started adding herbs to it, along with diced leftover vegetables, and created what I now call my Green Carbonara.

This is a dish that would be very easy to personalize based on the seasons and whatever you happen to have on hand--fresh basil in the summer or cilantro for a vaguely latin flavor. In terms of vegetables, add your favorites! I love diced green beans and pureeing in a little spinach or kale. Zucchini, sugar snap peas, or asparagus would also work well here. It's a great way to use up those herbs in your fridge that are about to die, and to add more greens to your diet without even thinking about it.

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Loved this Green Carbonara recipe? Here are three other easy pasta recipes you might like:

• Chimichurri Pasta Salad
• Rigatoni with Chorizo and Spicy Chipotle Cream Sauce
• Creamy Avocado Mint Pasta

And let's connect so you can find out the next time I post! Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest, become a fan on Facebook, or sign up to receive my once-a-week e-mail updates.

Thanks so much for reading!    

Green Carbonara
Serves 2-3

Ingredients
4 strips thick-cut bacon or pancetta, diced into 1/2" pieces
1 pound green beans, trimmed and diced into 2" pieces
1/2 cup kale or spinach, rinsed and thick stems removed
1/2 pound whole wheat rotini or other small shaped pasta (ziti, penne, rigatoni, etc.)
 2 eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1 bunch fresh parsley, bottom stems removed
2 scallions
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
kosher salt and black pepper


Directions
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. While the water comes to a boil, saute the diced bacon until crisp. Add the green beans and chopped kale or spinach, and continue to cook for 2 minute, or until the green beans are bright green and the kale or spinach has wilted. Remove the bacon and vegetables from the pan with a slotted spoon and reserve.

When the water hits a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook according to package directions until al dente. 

While the pasta cooks, combine the eggs, olive oil, parsley, scallions, cheese, kosher salt, and black pepper to your food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Add a little bit of water to it if it gets stuck and let go until creamy.

Pour this dressing into a large bowl and add the very hot, drained pasta on top. Toss well to coat (the heat from the pasta will cook the eggs). Add the bacon, green beans, and kale, and toss to distribute. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Serve immediately.

Tip: If you're squeamish about even the possibility of raw eggs, transfer this to a pot and cook over high heat quickly for 1 or 2 minutes, making sure not to overcook the pasta

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Dinner Diaries: Red Wine & Rosemary Braised Lamb Shanks

This is actually the second time I've made this dish this Fall, and I'm absolutely smitten. The lamb shanks get so tender that it's nearly impossible to plate them properly as the meat just falls right off the bone.

It's such an easy dish to make, too. And apart from the salt and olive oil, there are only five ingredients: onions, mushrooms, lamb shanks, rosemary, and a bottle of red wine.

When you cook with wine, you're technically supposed to use a good bottle. Something that you would actually drink in a glass along with the dish, and NEVER those horrible "cooking wines" that they sell next to the olive oil and vinegar in the supermarket. But I confess that I used a pretty awful bottle of wine for this. Not cooking wine bad, but still pretty bad. I used a bottle of $5 "Chateau Diana" Cabernet Sauvignon Wine...Product.

Yes, my friends, "wine product."

My friend Moe bought this at Rite-Aid for me the other day as a bad joke. This stuff is so gross. It's a horrifying blend of cheap wine mixed with water, juice, and sugar.

Basically, it's what hobos drink.

It's literally WORSE than Boone's Farm, because while Boone's Farm proudly declares that it's just alcoholic fruit punch made especially for sorority girls, "Chateau Diana" masquerades as real wine. It's got a fancy bottle and a fancy label and a sort-of-fancy name all meant to hide its damaged, trailer park roots. I'm 100% certain that it doesn't even speak French. It's the Holly Golightly of wine.

Amazingly, the lamb still came out heavenly. I probably didn't even have to admit that I used that crap, but I do recommend using a decent bottle when you make it.

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Red Wine Braised Lamb Shanks
Serves 2, multiply as necessary.

Print this Recipe

Ingredients
Extra virgin olive oil
2 lamb foreshanks, about 1 pound eachKosher salt
1 yellow onion, diced

8oz mushrooms, sliced
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 bottle red wine (such as Cabernet Sauvignon)
1 cup water

Directions
Heat a large, heavy bottom pot (such as a Dutch oven) over medium-high heat. Coat bottom of pan with olive oil. Sprinkle salt generously all over the lamb shanks and then brown in the hot oil on all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Once completely browned, remove from pot and set on a plate to rest.

Lower the heat to medium. Add the diced onion to the hot oil and saute for 2-3 minutes, just until slightly translucent. Add the sliced mushrooms and continue to saute for 2-3 more minutes. Add the lamb shanks back into the pot. Toss in the sprigs of rosemary. Pour in the entire bottle of red wine. Add one cup water.

Cover the pot with the lid and reduce heat to the lowest setting. Let braise for 2-3 hours, or until the lamb shanks are completely tender and falling off the bone. Remove the lid and gently transfer the lamb shanks to a serving dish to rest. With the lid still off, raise the heat to medium-high, and continue to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally,  until the sauce has reduced and thickened.

Serve lamb topped off with mushrooms and reduced sauce. 

Ideas for sides: sauteed kale, mashed potatoes, sweet potato puree, steamed vegetables

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The Dinner Diaries: An Introduction

I'm starting something new around here!

It's called The Dinner Diaries, and it's going to be a series of posts chronicling what I've made for dinner on random evenings. The posts will consist of a casual snapshot or two taken while cooking or just before sitting down to eat, a few brief sentences about the dish, and either a recipe or a brief rundown of what I did to create the dish.

I'm always making things that I want to share here, but don't because of the lack of natural light or because it's not particularly photogenic or because I just kind of winged it and didn't really write down the recipe as I made it. But I'm going to challenge myself to be a little bit more relaxed and just share, because I think it will help you to see the kinds of things I make most days. And maybe you'll be able to try them too, or just get ideas for ingredients or combinations or techniques you can try in your own kitchens.

Oh...and I'm not even going to limit it to dinner. Because sometimes I make random delicious things for lunch or for breakfast or for a snack, and those deserved to be shared, too. But I like the alliteration.

So that's the plan for The Dinner Diaries. Just simple, straightforward, what-we're-eating-tonight (or whenever) kinds of things.

xo

Alejandra

P.S. My first Dinner Diaries post will be up later featuring last night's lamb shanks.

P.P.S. I'm obviously going to continue with my other kinds of posts, too.

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