My nineteenth recipe with Wednesday with Donna Hay is Baked Carbonara found in her cookbook Off the Shelf: Cooking from the Pantry, p. 30.
I have made carbonara for years...it is one off the boys' favorites and our traditional Wednesday evening meal before Thanksgiving (a rather silly tradition we started about 30 years ago, in the early '80's, in honor of a 1981 New Yorker article written by Calvin Trillin, and if you don't know it, go here).
However, I have never had "baked" carbonara before, so when Margaret chose this recipe, I was happy to give it a go, thinking if this works out, I could make it earlier in the day and have it ready to bake for the evening meal. Not that I want it to replace my tried-and-true recipe really, but what a deal that would be to have it ready to go.
The ingredient list is pretty much the same as my standard recipe: fettuccine, eggs, milk, cream, bacon, and Parmigiano Reggiano (mine also has a bit of nutmeg and garlic in it), and though she didn't say to put salt & pepper in it, it was shown in the photo so I included it.
We loved it. This is really a good recipe (although the next time, just because we are accustomed to it, I will add a bit of garlic, just a bit, and a whisper of nutmeg.) And, you can be assured that from now on, I'm "baking" my carbonara, it was that good, that easy, and that convenient. Note: a fourth of this recipe nets 4 of these little single-serve dishes, and I baked them in the oven for 25 minutes at 300 degrees to baby the eggs a little more. I was happy with the result and will do it that way again.
Gaye's post on this is here, Margaret's post is here, Chaya's post is here. Next week Chaya's pick: Bok Choy and Noodle Stir Fry, p. 62 in Off the Shelf, if you would like to cook along, send us your link if you post it.
