Spaghetti Carbonara

My friends signed me up for a year's subscription to the Masterchef magazine for my birthday and the first one arrived this week. All that food porn has reignited my experimental cooking habits... If you haven't noticed, it is rare for me to be able to follow a recipe without making my own changes.

Inspired by a recipe from the magazine, along with an episode of Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals and some hints from a friend, I ended up with this.

Ingredients

• Two slices of short cut bacon, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup of frozen vegetables (I used peas, corn and carrots - substitute with whatever you want)
• 1 egg
• 100g spaghetti
• Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Boil water in a saucepan (it's faster to use the kettle). Salt the water and add spaghetti. (Check the cooking directions on your pasta - the longer it takes, the earlier you should start boiling the pasta. For 3 minute pasta, leave this step until the end.)
• Add bacon to a hot frypan, saute until fat is rendered and bacon starts to crisp up. Add garlic and saute until fragrant.
• Add frozen vegetables and mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms are soft and vegetables are heated through. Turn off heat.
• Crack egg into the bacon mixture, break yolk and gently fold the egg into the mixture until a smooth sauce begins to form. Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese in and continue to fold.
• Using tongs, remove some of the cooked pasta from boiling water and place into the sauce. Toss pasta through sauce. Continue to add pasta to sauce, spooning in some of the pasta water to slowly build up the creaminess of the sauce.
• Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper to serve.

spaghetti carbonara

The beauty of this dish is that you get the creamy texture of most carbonara sauces, but without the heaviness of the cream found in most restaurants. Which means you can eat more of it without feeling like you have overeaten!