Twirled Tour: Skillet Carbonara

I realize that I make a lot of pasta, but that's exactly why this Twirled Tour food truck is a genius idea. I have so many interesting and delicious varieties that the menu would never get stale!

I'd been tempted to make this particular recipe since the first time I flipped through my latest Cooking for Two book. I love, love, love pasta carbonara, but the egg involved has always made me nervous. Worse than undercooking it, I was worried about scrambling it. Once again, America's Test Kitchen made it easy for me with a fool-proof recipe!

This pasta was rich and creamy, there was just the right amount of bacon-y flavor, and the yummy homemade breadcrumb topping was the perfect finishing touch. I could eat this again, and again, and again. Plus, since I had the bacon out and an unopened bag of spinach in the fridge, I decided to give a warm bacon-spinach salad a go. And am I glad I did!

I broke out Tyler's Ultimate cookbook and flipped to The Ultimate Spinach Salad with Bacon, Black Pepper and Honey. Bill (surprisingly) really likes spinach ... usually raw, not cooked, but apparently also wilted. And he discovered that he loves spinach salad with warm bacon dressing the last time we visited the Capital Grille. Tyler's recipe beats that.

Skillet Carbonara Casserole
Ingredients:
4 slices bacon, chopped fine
1 slice white sandwich bread, torn into pieces
1 1/4 cups Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
Salt and Pepper
1 large egg
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup white wine
2 1/4 cups water
1 3/4 cups penne (or whatever type of pasta you have on hand)

Directions:
Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat broiler. Cook bacon in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until browned and crisp, about 8 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate. Pour off fat left in pan and reserve 1 tablespoon.

Pulse 1 tablespoon cooked bacon, 2 teaspoons reserved fat, bread (I used sourdough and I highly recommend it!), 2 tablespoons cheese, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in food processor until coarsely ground, about 6 pulses; set aside. In medium bowl, whisk remaining cheese, egg, milk, and broth together.

Add remaining 1 teaspoon reserved fat to skillet and return to medium heat until shimmering. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in wine and cook until reduced to 2 tablespoons, about 3 minutes. Add water, pasta, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and bring to rapid simmer. Cover and simmer vigorously, stirring often, until pasta is al dente and most of liquid is abosorbed, 10 to 15 minutes (this took about 9 minutes for my cavatappi).

Off heat, add egg mixture and remaining cooked bacon to pasta and toss to combine. Top with bacon-bread mixture, transfer to oven, and broil until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Let pasta cool for 5 minutes before serving.

The Ultimate Spinach Salad with Bacon, Black Pepper and Honey
Ingredients:
1 large egg
1 slice bacon
1/2 red onion, sliced thin
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 lb. baby spinach leaves
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Place the egg in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, turn the heat off, and let sit for 12 minutes. List the egg out of the pan and cool; peel and coarsely chop the egg.

Place the bacon in a skillet and cook 3 to 4 minutes (I like my bacon super crisp, so I cooked mine a bit longer) over medium heat to render the fat. Place the bacon on a paper towel-lined plate, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook 5 to 6 minutes, until soft. Add the honey and vinegar and continue cooking until the onion has caramelized, about 5 more minutes. Toss the spinach into the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss with tongs until just wilted, about 30 seconds. Place the spinach in a bowl and onions in a bowl, crumble cooked bacon over salad, and sprinkle with egg.


Salad: Amazing. Carbonara: Amazing. I don't know what else to say.

Twirled Tour: Baked Ziti with Sausage

As usual, I had a hard time getting back into the swing of things after our long weekend trip. That meant I was too exhausted to cook ... and I hadn't been grocery shopping!

When either of those two factors come into play, I always turn to the freezer and pantry. And when I discover what's inside, I hunt for a recipe to use it. Pasta is a great go-to dish when you're running short on time (or ingredients).  Inevitably, there's pasta in our pantry (usually quite a variety of half-used boxes, as evidence by the combination you'll read about below!). And I almost always have Italian sausage in the freezer. So this Baked Ziti with Sausage seemed like a no brainer ... and a perfect opportunity to continue our Twirled Tour!).

Baked Ziti with Sausage
Ingredients:
1 (28 oz.) can whole tomatoes
4 oz. ziti or whatever other pasta you have on hand (about 1 1/4 cups)
Salt
6 oz. Italian sausage
1/4 cup jarred roasted red peppers, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Pulse tomatoes with their juice in food processor until coarsely chopped and no large pieces remain, 6 to 8 pulses.

Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add pasta (I used a combination of mostaccioli and cavatappi because I happened to have small amounts of each on hand!) and 1 tablespoon salt and cook, stirring often, until al dente. Drain pasta.

Add sausage to pot and cook over medium-high heat, breaking up meat with wooden spoon, until fat begins to render, about 2 minutes. Stir in roasted red peppers (the recipe actually called for half of a fresh red bell pepper, but I had a jar of roasted in the fridge so I subbed!) and cook until sausage is lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes, basil and sugar and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in processed tomatoes and tomato paste and simmer gently until tomatoes no longer taste raw and sauce has thickened, about 15 minutes.

Add sauce to pasta and toss to combine. Pour into 9x11-inch baking dish. Sprinkle cheese over the top.

Bake until cheese has melted and browned and pasta has heated through, 10 to 15 minutes. Let pasta cool for 5 minutes before serving.


This was good, but not as good as the Baked Rigatoni with Eggplant and Sausage that I made from Tyler's cookbook a few weeks back. I actually had to doctor this sauce (with the addition of sugar and tomato paste) because it just wasn't very exciting. I think the difference between this and Tyler's baked pasta was the hearty chunkiness that he had going on - the tomatoes were still sort of lumpy because you crushed them with your hands, the sausage was cut into big bite-sized pieces, and the eggplant was sliced and tossed with the whole concoction. This was just pasta tossed with sauce and sprinkled with cheese. Very good, just not outstanding.