Zucchini Carbonara

By Shaylie

Ingredients

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6 medium green and yellow zucchini
• 1 spaghetti squash
• 4 large free-range or organic egg yolks
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 cooked chicken breasts
• 2 good handfuls freshly grated Parmesan
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Olive oil
• 12 thick slices pancetta or lean bacon, cut into chunky pieces
• A small bunch fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped, flowers reserved (if you can get hold of flowering thyme)

Preparation

Step 1

Carbonara is a classic pasta sauce made with cream, bacon and Parmesan and is absolutely delicious. Try to buy the best ingredients you can, as that's what really helps to make this dish amazing. When it comes to the type of pasta, you can serve carbonara with spaghetti or linguine, but I wanted to go grain free so I opted for spaghetti squash instead. Before you start cooking, it's important to get yourself a very large pan, or use a high-sided roasting pan so you can give the pasta a good toss.

Cook the spaghetti squash how you like it. Halve and then quarter any larger zucchini lengthwise. Cut out and discard any fluffy middle bits, and slice the zucchini at an angle into pieces roughly the same size and shape as the penne. Smaller zucchini can simply be sliced finely.

To make your creamy carbonara sauce, put the egg yolks into a bowl, add the cream and half the Parmesan, and mix together with a fork. Season lightly with salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat a very large frying pan (a 14-inch is a good start - every house should have one!), add a good splash of olive oil and fry the pancetta or bacon until dark brown and crisp. Add the zucchini slices, chicken and 2 big pinches of black pepper, not just to season but to give it a bit of a kick. Sprinkle in the thyme leaves, give everything a stir, so the zucchini is coated with all the lovely bacon-flavored oil, and fry until they start to turn lightly golden and have softened slightly.

Immediately, toss the spaghetti squash in the pan with the zucchini, bacon, then remove from the heat and add a ladleful of your creamy sauce. Stir together quickly. (No more cooking now, otherwise you'll scramble the eggs.) Sprinkle in the rest of the Parmesan and enjoy.