Healthier Carbonara (No Cream!)

One of my favourite pasta dishes is carbonara. It’s so hard to find an authentic one, even in Italian restaurants they add cream to the sauce. Partly this is because that’s what customers in the UK expect, an overly saucey, creamy gloop. There are a few restaurants (ones actually run by Italian families) that I know who will prepare it without cream, but I finally decided to make it myself.

As I’m trying to be healthier at the minute I didn’t use pancetta, but I found some Italian style ham cubes in the supermarket and thought that would make a pretty good, and low-fat, substitute. I did a bit of recipe research. Some used whole eggs, some just yolks. They all used about 1 egg per person. I decided to use one whole egg and one yolk. They also used about 1oz of parmesan per person. It is traditionally served with spaghetti, but I used tagliatelle instead.

The result was delicious, and so creamy I honestly don’t know why people add extra cream! It was also super easy and really quick, I don’t know why I haven’t made it myself before.

Ingredients:

Tagliatelle – 7oz/200g

Olive oil - ½ tablespoon

Cubed ham – 2.5oz/70g

Eggs – 1 whole and 1 yolk

Parmesan – 2oz/55g (grated)

Seasoning – salt & pepper

Equpiment: Frying pan, pasta pan, bowl, fork/whisk, spaghetti server

Method:

1. Fry off the ham in the frying pan with the olive oil.
2. Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling water.
3. In a bowl whisk together the eggs and parmesan, and season.
4. Drain the pasta and return to the pan (off the heat), add the ham, and pour in the egg/parmesan mix.
5. Stir really well until it starts to thicken and coats the pasta.
6. Serve with plenty of black pepper.