Meatless Mondays: Pasta Carbonara for One

Happy New Year! My New Year's Resolution is to manage my time better so that I can meet my goals. One specific way I want to accomplish this is to set aside 5 hours a week for writing, including for this blog. (I am also starting on my religion blog, SWFseeksgod, this month. After over a year of thinking about it, and six months trying to plan, I decided to just wing it.) Anyway, here's my newest dish.

Every once in awhile, you eat something that makes you think, “Life is good.” I’d only had spaghetti carbonara once or twice, when I was in Italy many years ago. I remember liking it okay, but being incredibly impressed. However, for some reason, I developed a craving for it a few days ago. This isn’t the first time I have developed a craving for something unfamiliar. Three summers ago, I developed an insane craving for fresh figs, even though I’d never tried one before. I decided to indulge myself. I found Sabrinatee’s version on allrecipes.com and decided to give it my best shot. 

Pasta carbonara is one of those things that you wouldn’t expect to translate to vegetarian very well. It is, essentially, spaghetti with garlic, bacon, and cheese. Finding vegetarian cheese isn’t too tough, thanks to Joyous Living.  But bacon? Vegetarian bacon varies quite a bit from brand to brand. My favorite commercially-available brand is the Lightlife Smoky Tempeh Strips. Unfortunately, I can only get it at PCC, and I was in no mood to drive there. I’d have to make do with what I could find. That turned out to be Lightlife Smart Bacon, a low-fat vegetarian rendition of bacon. (It has 1/5th the calories of the tempeh strips and less than half the fat.) 

Smart Bacon is salty, savory, and slightly smoky. However, as a healthy alternative to the “bad” version, it is missing the essential greasiness. I love that these vegetarian options are helping folks keep their cholesterol and fat levels down. However, even veggies need to indulge. A lot of vegetarian food seems to go one of two ways: extremely light and healthy or extremely rich and heavy. There’s a time and place for either, but it irks me when I walk into a restaurant and find that the vegetarian option is a cheese-heavy Alfredo sauce or a sauceless vegetable plate. There is a middle ground! But I digress. What is important to take away from this is that I completely ignored the cooking instructions on the Smart Bacon and wound up with something tastier but less virtuous. (Virtuous pasta carbonara? Who am I kidding.)

Spaghetti Carbonara for One (will serve two if you have salad, nibbles before, and/or dessert after)

Ingredients:

¼ lb. spaghetti rigati (this holds sauce better than the smooth spaghettis)

1-2 T. olive oil

2 strips of Smart Bacon or other faux bacon product (thaw if frozen)

1 clove of garlic, minced

¼ c. chopped onion (or more if you don’t have a date)

1 egg, beaten well

2 T. Parmesan

salt and pepper

1.     Bring a big pot of salted water to boil over high heat.

2.     While it’s heating up, in a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 T. olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, swirl it over the bottom of the pan and add the two slices of bacon. Immediately flip them over so both sides are coated with oil.

3.     Keep an eye on the bacon and the water. Mince the garlic and chop the onion if you haven’t already done so.

4.     Flip the bacon once the bottom starts to darken. Put the pasta into the boiling water and stir once so it doesn’t stick.

5.     Check the bacon. You don’t want it burned, but it should be getting crispy around the edges. Remove it from the pan and let it drain on a paper towel. Put another 1-3 teaspoons of oil into the pan (depending on how much the bacon absorbed) and add the onion. Stir and cook until it is translucent, then add the garlic and cook until it softens. Between stirs, chop the bacon and drain the pasta (if it’s done). Don’t rinse it!

6.     Add the chopped bacon to the pan and stir well.

7.     Add the drained pasta and toss well to coat. Use tongs or a couple of forks or spoons. Just don’t scratch the Teflon. You want the pasta to be fairly evenly coated with residual oil and for the bacon, onion, and garlic to be studded throughout. The pasta should be very hot. If it’s not, toss it around a bit more to heat it up.

8.     Take the pan off of the heat. Take a deep breath. Pour on the beaten egg and mix like crazy. You want each piece of pasta to be coated with egg. Don’t stir… you don’t want to have spaghetti with scrambled egg. Try to keep the egg from touching the hot pan if possible. Once the egg has set, add 2 T. Parmesan. Sprinkle on a bit of salt and pepper if it needs it. I used crushed red pepper.

9.     Eat as soon as possible. The texture is not nearly so enjoyable if you let it get tepid or cold.