I’ve been away a lot of late so haven’t had much chance to update you on my progress through “How To Eat”.
This dish though is well worth talking about. It’s one of those ready in as long as it takes to cook the pasta dishes – which makes it perfect for lunch on a cold day or a quick Sunday night supper when you’ve been out for lunch and probably shouldn’t be eating dinner anyway.
In a way, it’s like carbonara with lemon instead of bacon – although carbonara doesn’t normally have cream in it, at least not the way that I make it anyway – but you get the idea. However you look at it this isn’t a dish you make if you’re into the whole treating your body like a temple thing – although it absolutely is good for your soul.
Nigella’s recipe is for 6 (with a green salad and Irish tarte tatin for pudding) and I made it at lunch for 2 with no pudding so the quantities I used were loose indeed. I wouldn’t have a clue how much pasta I used, but it was spaghetti, not linguine.
It was, however, easy. I popped the pasta on to boil and in a bowl mixed together an egg (I used a whole egg rather than an egg yolk), a couple of tablespoons of creme fraiche that I’d got from the Gympie cheese man at the markets (instead of double cream), a good handful of grated parmesan, the zest of a whole lemon and juice of half a lemon, some salt and pepper. I also added some chilli flakes for a little heat.
When the pasta was done I scooped out a half a cup of pasta water, drained the pasta and then tossed it back into the hot pan, but off the heat, and threw in a good knob of butter, swirling it around until it was melted and all the strands of pasta had been covered. Then I poured in the eggy, creamy, cheesy, lemony mix and stirred it through well. The pasta water is for if it all still seems a tad dry.
It’s served immediately with parsley and a green salad but I made it on a Monday lunchtime and couldn’t be faffed with the salad. We didn’t miss it.
I’ve taken on the challenge to cook my way through Nigella Lawson’s How To Eat. You can find other episodes here.
Brookford Kitchen Diaries 