Vegetarian Pasta “Carbonara” with Roasted Asparagus, Mushrooms and Tomatoes

 

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2014

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I am a HUGE fan of homemade pasta.  I love the process of making it.  I like looking at it on my counter drying and, more than anything, I love eating it.   Homemade pasta is more different from boxed pasta than you expect & easier to make than you might think.  It is especially easy if you have a Kitchenaid stand mixer & the pasta cutting attachment.  This blog today will not get into making pasta because I have covered that a great deal already over the years.  Click HERE to see a partial list of recipes I have blogged about that used homemade pasta.  They will all contain info or links to info on the wonder that is homemade pasta.

One of my most successful pasta dishes was so awesome – it didn’t even need the homemade spaghetti to push it over the top.  It was my smoked salmon carbonara.  Is it gorgeous or what?

I really love salmon & smoked salmon in pasta is hard to fuck up but – alas – I gave up seafood this year.  Still – I found myself craving this simple & smokey dish so I dug through my fridge & came up with today’s version of carbonara.  Traditional carbonara uses eggs & some form of pork – ham or bacon.  It should not involve cream & it has nothing to do with the Americanized alfredo-like dish so many places serve up.  It should be clean & light & flavorful.  This vegetarian version lives up to those standards.

I used tomatoes because I had a few that were on their last legs & I did not want them to go to waste.  They add a nice color to the photos but I think they might be too sharp in taste to really serve the others flavors in this dish so – in the future – I will omit them.    Use PASTURED eggs.  Only pastured eggs are genuinely cruelty-free   They cost about a buck apiece but they are so worth it.  This dish is very easy to pull together once you have roasted the veggies so do not be intimidated.

Vegetarian Pasta “Carbonara” with Roasted Asparagus, Mushrooms and Tomatoes

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

1/2 pound dry pasta (or homemade) – spaghetti is traditional

1 bunch asparagus – tough ends trimmed (see and easy way HERE) and sliced into 1-2 inch pieces

4 Roma tomatoes – diced (optional & I actually suggest skipping them)

6-10 mushrooms – sliced

4 garlic cloves – chopped

Olive oil

2 eggs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Smoked mozzarella for grating

S&P

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Toss the mushrooms, asparagus & tomatoes (if you are using tomatoes) and garlic in about 1-2 TBS olive oil.  Toss in some S&P.  Roast for 30-45 minutes – stirring every 15 minutes until the vegetables look about like this & have released most of their moisture.

You could do this in a saute pan, too, but the oven is effortless & dries the veggies out well so – yeah.

Whisk the eggs & Parmesan & most of the parsley & some salt & pepper in a bowl.

When you think the vegetables are almost ready, cook the pasta.  Drain it & toss it immediately with the hot vegetables & the raw egg mixture.  The heat from the pasta & veggies will cook the eggs – I promise.

Serve the pasta with the extra parsley & grate some smoked mozzarella over the top.  The smokey cheese will replicate the missing ham just a bit.

Add more Parmesan, if you like, and lots of freshly ground pepper.  Mmmmm!

Vegetarian Chicken & Broccoli Carbonara with Roasted Tomatoes

 

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2013

Follow @celisemccarthy

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To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.

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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option.  Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out.  It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing.  The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.

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OK – these might not be the prettiest photos of food you have ever seen & I apologize but this dish was still delicious.

I also apologize for being rather slack about posting at all but I have been consumed by putting the final touches on my debut novel, Bathing & the Single Girl.  I expect to have it out early next year.  It is a comic, mockumemoir.  It is raunchy & hilarious & I hope you all read it!

Anyway – I made this dish with the leftover parsley pappardelle & roasted tomatoes from my Homemade Parsley Pappardelle with Roasted Tomatoes & Creamy Chanterelle Mushrooms from a few days ago.

You can use any kind of pasta you like for the dish but I think I would recommend spaghetti.  If roasting tomatoes sounds like a pain in the arse – blow that off.  The dish will be okay without them.

Also – I tried this new brand of vegan chicken.

They make more of an effort to make this stuff look like grilled chicken but I like the cheaper version from Trader Joe’s better.

That Trader Joe’s version makes THE BEST Vegan Orange Chicken ever!

You could make this dish with real chicken, too.  Or – if you are a fan of smoked salmon – try my Smoked Salmon Spaghetti Carbonara!

Vegetarian Chicken & Broccoli Carbonara with Roasted Tomatoes

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

For the roasted tomatoes

10-20 grape or cherry tomatoes – halved

olive oil

4 garlic cloves – chopped

A few fresh rosemary sprigs – stems removed & chopped

S&P

For the Carbonara

1/2 lb pasta

6-8 oz vegan (or other) chicken

2 (or more) cups of small broccoli florets

olive oil

4 cloves garlic – minced

2 eggs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Crushed red pepper (optional)

S&P to taste

Parsley as garnish

Extra Parmesan for garnish

DIRECTIONS

For the roasted tomatoes

Toss the halved tomatoes with the diced garlic, rosemary, 1-2 TBS olive oil and S&P.  Roast on parchment or otherwise lined cooking sheet at about 350-40 for 20-25 minutes.  Set aside.

For the carbonara

Whisk the eggs with the Parmesan.  Add about 1 tsp black pepper.  Set aside.

Heat 2 TBS olive oil in a large saute pan.  Saute the chicken (or faux chicken) until it begins to brown.  If using real chicken – cook it through.  Set aside.

Add another TBS olive oil to the pan & saute the broccoli and about 1 tsp (or to taste) or crushed red pepper.  When it is tender – add the garlic & cook for another minute.  Add the chicken & the roasted tomatoes (if using) & set aside on very low heat.

Cook the pasta, drain it & immediately toss it with the raw egg & cheese mixture.

Add the egg/pasta to the chicken & broccoli & heat it all through.

Serve with S&P to taste & lots of Parmesan & chopped parsley.

Smoked Salmon Spaghetti Carbonara & a Really Long Podcast (if you know what I’m saying)

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2013

Follow @celisemccarthy

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To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.

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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option.  Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out.  It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing.  The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.

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First of all – I did a comprehensive interview a few months ago that was recently posted.  I talk about just about everything important over the course of my entire life.  If the minutiae of my existence intrigue you – HERE is the i-tunes link.  I talk about the old 90210 & being on set with Chucky & this blog & film festivals & what scandalous whores TV characters are these days.  Plus more!  And more.  And more.  That said –

This might be my favorite friggin’ pasta dish I have ever made!  Insanely easy & outrageously delicious.  Looking back over my past recipes I couldn’t help but notice that I seem to rave about most anything I put salmon in.  Like these:

Spaghetti with Smoked Salmon, Capers, Cream Cheese & Dill

Potato, Salmon & Asparagus Tall Tart (Pie) with Fresh Dill

Spicy Hoisin BBQ Salmon Tacos with Asian Slaw & Micro Cilantro

Roasted Salmon & Potato Hash with Hominy & Poached Egg (AWESOME!!)

Easiest Spicy Thai Coconut Salmon Soup for the Slow Cooker (with a Vegan option!)

But this smoked salmon carbonara is just something you must try if you like smoked salmon.  If you do not, make this with the traditional bacon (or the more authentic guanciale).  But try this.  Contrary to many folks’ idea of carbonara – true carbonara has no heavy cream.  It is simply whatever meat you use, eggs & Parmesan.  And pasta.  I made homemade spaghetti and that takes this dish to another level entirely but that is completely unnecessary.

This attachment for my Kitchenaid stand mixer is so awesome – I might marry it.  I make the pasta dough in my bread machine & then this thing turns that into spaghetti.  It is virtually effortless.   If you have a stand mixer – this attachment is worth its cost – assuming you eat lots of pasta.  And it makes several kinds of pasta – including tube pastas.  Think about it!  HERE is my original recipe for making homemade pasta.  And below is an image of the spaghetti I made.

So – this carbonara requires these items:

Spaghetti

Eggs

Parmesan cheese

Pepper

Smoked salmon

Garlic

Olive oil

I am going to let you decide whether or not to use homemade (or store-bought fresh pasta) or dry pasta but spaghetti is the traditional noodle used.  Check out how easy this is.  I am going to list the ingredients in a “per serving” way & you can just figure out how much of each you need to feed your headcount.

Smoked Salmon Spaghetti Carbonara

Ingredients

Spaghetti (1/4 lb dry per serving)

Eggs (one per serving)

Parmesan cheese – grated fine (1/4 cup per serving)

Pepper – to taste

Smoked salmon – roughly chopped – this is to taste, too.  You don’t need that much.  Think of it like bacon & allot an amount similar – per serving

Garlic – cut very thin (I used 2 cloves per serving)

Olive oil – a glug per serving

Parsley (Important!  Parsley is more than a garnish & really improves this dish.) – chopped – to taste

Extra cheese & pepper as garnish

DIRECTIONS

Cook the pasta.

While that is going on, saute the garlic & salmon in the olive oil over medium heat.  You do not want to brown the garlic & you are really only trying to heat the salmon through.

Whisk the egg & cheese & some pepper in a bowl & set aside.

When the pasta is done – reserve about a cup of the hot pasta water & drain the rest.  Add the pasta to the pan with the garlic & salmon.  Toss & combine well.

Transfer to a large bowl & then add the cheese & egg mixture.  The heat from the pasta will cook the eggs.  TRUST ME.  Add a bit of the hot pasta water (not all of it – GO SLOW) and mix it in.  Once you have a nice creamy texture (and you might not use much pasta water at all), serve it up on plates & be sure to top with lots of freshly chopped parsley.  Add more cheese & pepper if you like.  Shove it in your pie hole & wash it down with copious quantities of wine.  Fuck that whole “white wine goes with fish” thing, too.  If you want white – go for it but this dish holds its own against a big red, too.  Eat your carbonara!  Drink your Cabernet!  Think, “I am one badass son-of-a-bitch!”  Because you are!  AAAAAAARRRGGGGH!

I said badass – not pirate.  It’s a thin line.

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