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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Sweet & Spicy Broccolini, Spinach, and Sausage

On weekends when we don't have any plans, my husband and I usually sleep in, waking up sometime around 11 or 12 when our bodies naturally pull us out of dreamland. Eugene wakes up ready to eat, often heading into the kitchen to scrounge himself up something. He'll have an egg or yogurt or some leftover cake or a simple sandwich of turkey or salami on whole wheat bread. I'm a bit slower those mornings, preferring to languish in bed finishing up the last few pages of a book or read through blog posts while sipping lemon water. It usually takes me about an hour or so to finally go into the kitchen and figure out breakfast (lunch, really, at this point).

But the thing is that unlike Eugene, I'm never really satisfied with just an egg or a simple sandwich, and so I'll emerge 15 or 20 minutes later with some kind of elaborate meal--a fluffy omelet filled with sauteed vegetables and goat cheese or a quesadilla topped with cumin-scented yogurt and chipotle hot sauce or a bowl of quinoa tossed with shrimp in a lemony dressing.

"Ohhh...I HATE this!" Eugene always says. "You always go and make yourself something amazing after I've already eaten. It's not fair."

"Well, you can just wait for me," I point out.

This past weekend was just like this. Eugene woke up and made himself a salami sandwich (whole wheat bread, mayo, a few slices of salami) and ate it while watching football. And then I emerged with the bowl above--sweet and spicy sauteed broccolini and spinach with hot Italian sausage topped with large shavings of pecorino.

"Want some?" I asked as I waved the bowl teasingly before him.

"Oh whatever," he said, turning back to the game.

This easy dish took me all of 15 minutes to prepare and would be easy to customize depending on the vegetables you have in your fridge. (I used the sausage leftover from last week's creamy sausage, mushroom, and pasta dish.) You can also use regular broccoli, escarole, broccoli rabe, or even kale; in the spring you can add green beans or asparagus. It only uses a tiny bit of real maple syrup to sweeten it, but the contrast between the spicy and tiny hint of sweetness is absolutely perfect!

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Sweet & Spicy Broccolini, Spinach, and Sausage

Print this Recipe

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/3 pound hot Italian sausage (substitute turkey or chicken sausage, if desired), out of the casing and crumbled
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup (or honey)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup chicken broth1 bunch broccolini, washed and cut into 1" pieces
1 pound spinach, washed, trimmed, and chopped into 2" thick ribbons (or use baby spinach)
Kosher salt and black pepper
Wedge of lemon
Pecorino cheese shavings (use a potato peeler to peel off the cheese)

Directions
Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large, deep skillet or pot with a lid and add crumbled sausage. Saute for about 2-3 minutes or until sausage is browned.

Add the maple syrup, red pepper, and chicken broth and stir to combine. Add the chopped broccolini and spinach, stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and cover. Let cook for about 3 minutes or until the spinach has wilted and the broccolini has turned bright green. Remove the lid and let continue to cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally to combine, until the liquid has almost entirely reduced and the broccolini is tender.

Season with kosher salt and black pepper, to taste. Serve immediately garnished with pecorino cheese shavings and a lemon wedge.

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