Creamy Bacon Fettuccine

previous recipe post

So while I'm at my mum's house for a few weeks, I've decided to read through her cookbooks and make things from them, as well as do what I can to eat all the food in the freezers (and add some new items for her of course). First up I read through Julie Goodwin's second cookbook "The heart of the home". Published by Random House, ISBN: 978 1 74275 009 5. As always this is my adaptation of her recipe, and all photos are mine unless otherwise stated.

Ingredients

^{and an onion, that I decided I needed after taking this photo}

A bit over half a packet of Fettuccine
Bacon - about the equivalent of 4-6 rashers
A dozen Mushrooms - about 200 grams
Garlic - 3 cloves
2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
1/2 teaspoon White Pepper
300 ml Cream
1 Onion

Preparation

Bacon - Sliced into strips about 5 mm by 3 cm.
Onion - Diced.
Garlic - Finely chopped or Minced
Mushrooms - Finely sliced.

Method

• Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of salted water for 2 mins shorter than packet directions. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of water. Try to time this better than I did so the pasta is cooked when the sauce is nearly finished.

• Saute bacon in a frypan over medium heat until browning. Add Onion and garlic and fry for about 5 minute.

• Reduce heat to medium low and add the mushrooms. Stir, cooking for 5 minutes.

• Add the pasta water, mustard and pepper to the pan and mix well, until the mustard is dissolved. Add the cream and stir well. simmer and cook for about 5 minutes until the sauce thickens. Season to taste.

^{I think this was before I mixed the pasta into the sauce}

• Add the pasta to the pan and stir well until all the pasta is coated in the sauce. Add Parmesan cheese when serving

^{I found a lacking of parmesan cheese, so I added a bit of grated cheese anyway}

Thoughts

I've always enjoyed carbonara and this was yet another simple way of making it. From getting the ingredients out, to finishing clean up after eating, it was under an hour.

I've made Carbonara with egg, and I've made it without egg. I've made it with cream and without cream. So long as it takes < 20 minutes to make, and tastes delicious, I'll continue to make it whichever way the recipe I run into when I'm looking suggests, or dependant on the ingredients I have. There was cream in the fridge this time that needed using, so that was the leading choice in style. It was a very tasty meal, but as usual when it's cream based, it was quite a heavy sauce, making the serving quite filling.