- 4
- 10 mins
- 50 mins
Ingredients
- 1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
- 8 ounces mushrooms, quartered
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 8 ounces fettuccine (or pasta of choice)
- 4 ounces pancetta, diced or 4 ounces bacon cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup (2 ounces) parmigiano reggiano (parmesan), grated
- plenty of fresh cracked black pepper
- salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
Preparation
Step 1
Carbonara is an Italian pasta dish consisting of egg, bacon, fresh cracked black pepper and cheese and I am a huge fan of it; it's so quick and easy to make and so amazingly good! One of the things that I like about it is that you can easily add things, like vegetables, and I figured that it was past time to make a carbonara with my new favourite vegetable, cauliflower. Of course, I could not resist roasting the cauliflower to give it that caramelized flavour and I also brought cauliflowers best fried, mushrooms, to the roasting pan! Once the vegetables are roasted you really just need to cook the bacon (I used pancetta this time) and pasta and toss everything together! The trick to carbonara is that you want to mix the egg sauce with the hot pasta, bacon and pasta water so that the eggs 'cook' without scrambling, which is actually pretty easy! This roasted cauliflower and mushroom carbonara might just be my favourite carbonara yet!
Roasted cauliflower and mushrooms are just so addictively good!
directions
Toss the cauliflower and mushrooms in the oil, salt and pepper, place on a baking sheet in a single layer and roast in a preheated 400F oven until they start to caramelize, about 20-30 minutes, mixing half way through.
Cook the pancetta in a pan, pour off all but a tablespoon of the grease from the pan, add the garlic, cook for 30 second and turn off the heat.
Mix the egg, cheese, pepper and salt and parsley in a bowl.
Mix the pasta, egg mixture, cauliflower and mushrooms into the pan with the pancetta, adding reserved pasta water as needed.
: To speed things up, about 20 minutes into roasting the cauliflower and mushrooms, get your pot of water for the pasta on the stove and start bringing it to a boil.
: Replace the parmigiano reggiano with pecorino romano.