Creamy Carbonara Pasta

We have been eating pasta in tomato-meat sauce for succeeding occasions.  So, my taste buds craved for something different. I am not a big fan of pasta in white creamy sauce but we have an overstock of spaghetti noodles at home and we have bacon sleeping in the freezer.  So, I decided to make use of these ingredients together with other vegetables and spices that we have at home.

A little bit of history, Carbonara was derived from the Italian word, carbonero, which means charcoal.  The carbonara pasta was first made as meal for the charcoal workers in Italy.    In America, the spaghetti in creamy white sauce was referred to as coal miner’s spaghetti.    

Italians use raw eggs instead of milk to create traditional carbonara dish.  I prefer milk over raw eggs.  

Here, you don’t have to be a charcoal miner to enjoy this creamy carbonara pasta.  

Creamy Carbonara Pasta

Ingredients:

300 g. spaghetti noodles

200 g. bacon, cut into small slices  

120 g. mushroom pieces and stems

400 ml. evaporated milk

3 tbsp butter (about 2 medium slices)

2 tbsp Olive oil (pomace or pure)

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

½ tbsp. salt

½ tbsp. ground pepper

½ tsp dried oregano

Grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Evaporated milk and mushroom pieces and stems

Bacon gives carbonara its smokey meaty flavor 

Chopped garlic and onions are a must!

How to Cook Carbonara:

Noodles:

Cook pasta noodles until al dente.  Set aside.

Bacon:

Fry bacon slices until caramelized but not brown.  The bacon is done when the fats are transparent or clear.  Set aside.

Cream Sauce:

1. Drizzle olive oil in a pan.  Sauté garlic and onion until onions wilt a bit.  Put 2 slices of butter and continue to stir until butter melts.

2. Pour the evaporated milk. Stir and let it simmer for 3 minutes over low heat. 

3. Put mushroom stems and pieces and simmer for 2 minutes over low heat.

4. Put the fried bacon slices, stir well and let it boil for 5 minutes over low heat.

5. Season with salt and pepper then sprinkle with dried oregano. Stir well for 1 minute.

6. Garnish with extra virgin olive oil.  Simmer a bit. Turn off stove.

Creamy carbonara sauce 

Pour the noodles over the cream sauce.  Mix and toss well.

You may sprinkle parmesan cheese if you like.

Voila! Creamy carbonara pasta!

Hi-ho! Hi-ho!  I could imagine Snow White’s seven dwarfs anticipating a meal of carbonara spaghetti after a long day’s mining work. 

The folks at home did not do any mining work but they emptied the casserole where the creamy carbonara pasta has been.  Nothing but just the odor of the creamy sauce could be traced. 

Creamy Carbonara Pasta, You’re So Beautifood!

Baked Rigatoni

Rigatoni is an over-sized macaroni that goes best with chunky tomato-meat sauce. The size of each rigatoni tube (1 1/4" L x 0.75" W) may be overwhelming but you can conquer it.  You may cook it the way you would an ordinary pasta dish—toss the pasta and sauce and voila! Or you may bake it.

Italian Rigatoni

My version is accidental Baked Rigatoni.   I wanted to cook it the traditional pasta way, no oven involved.  It was my first time to use rigatoni tubes in my pasta dish and I underestimated the cooking time, it was too "al dente", a little hard to the bite.  But since I already tossed in the tomato-meat sauce, I cannot separate anymore the rigatoni to further boil it.  So, I thought of a remedy, and eureka!  Bake it! And so I did.  And it turned out better than the traditional way.

Here’s the recipe.

Baked Rigatoni

Ingredients!

500 g. Rigatoni

400 g. Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes

620 g. Hunt’s Mushrooms Spaghetti Sauce

400 g. Minced Lean Pork (or beef)
250 g. sausages, julienned (cut diagonally)

200 g. Pitted green olives

100 g. Capers

4 tbsp. Pomace Olive Oil

3 tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tsp. Dried Oregano

1 tsp. Dried Basil

1 tbsp. Salt

4 tbsp. Brown sugar

2 tsp. Black Pepper- ground  

MSG- optional

Shredded Cheese- optional

Cook It!

Rigatoni

Boil the rigatoni until almost al dente (approximately 3 minutes to being firm to the bite).  Drain water and set aside in a casserole.

Boiled Rigatoni

Tomato-Meat Sauce

1. In a skillet over low heat, saute chopped onion and garlic in pomace olive oil until onions are caramelized.

2. Turn the heat to medium and put in the minced lean pork and continue to sauté until meat turns brown.

3. Put in the pitted olives and the capers and sauté more for 3 minutes.

4. Pour in the diced tomatoes and stir continuously for 5 minutes under low-medium heat.

5. Pour in the mushrooms pasta sauce and continue to stir for 5 minutes under low-medium heat.  Add 4 tsp hot water if mixture gets too thick to avoid burning at the bottom.

6. Put in brown sugar, salt and pepper and stir continuously under low heat for 2 minutes.

7. Sprinkle with oregano and basil then stir continuously under low heat for another 2 minutes.

8. Lastly, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and swirl for a minute.

Mixture of minced lean pork, sausages, olives and capers smells so good when sauted 

Diced tomatoes over the sauted meat, olives and capers

The steaming tomato-meat sauce

Toss It!

1. Gradually pour the tomato-meat mixture over the rigatoni until everything is covered with the sauce.

2. Toss and mix, ensuring every rigatoni tube is coated with the tomato-meat mixture.

Put the excess tomato-meat sauce in a tightly-capped canister and store in the refrigerator for use within 3-5 days with any pasta noodle for sudden pasta cravings. 

Bake It!

1. Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees F for 5-7 minutes.

2. In a greased 9x11 baking dish,pour the tossed rigatoni and tomato-meat dish. You may sprinkle shredded cheese on top if you want.

3. Cover the baking dish with a foil and bake for 20 minutes at 175 degrees F.

Enjoy!

Now you have a different kind of pasta dish for you and your loved ones.

Baked Rigaotni ready for the taking!

Baked Rigatoni, You’re So Beautifood!

Riste d’ Aubergine Lasagne with Bacon and Creamy Bechamel Sauce

One veggie that goes best with lasagna is eggplant.  Organic or regular eggplants may be grilled, mashed or flaked then mixed with staple vegetables like tomatoes, onions and mushrooms.  In France, the famous way of cooking eggplants is Riste d’Aubergine, in which eggplant mixture is simmered for 3 long hours to extract the flavors.   Unless, you have that luxury of time, you may opt to buy bottled Riste d’ Aubergine which is made in France.  In the Philippines, bottles of Riste d’ Aubergine are usually found in the imported section of Rustan’s Supermarket.  I think these could also be found in duty free shops.

French Riste d' Aubergine

As a post- New Year celebration, I baked lasagna (for the first time!).  I usually cook all kinds of pasta except lasagna.  But some 2 months ago, when I saw this Casino Riste d’ Aubergine 650g. bottle, which was on sale at 50% off, I bought it with the thought that aubergines go well with lasagna.  Notwithstanding that I have nil experience in baking lasagna, I just bought it, with a side-thought that “bahala na (leave it to the stars), I can do it”.

Surprise of all surprises!  I baked my first lasagna and it was a huge success!  When it comes to cooking and baking, I noticed that I am blessed with “beginner’s luck”.  When I baked my first cream puffs some 2 years ago, it was also a success.  I was able to create a choux pastry, and it did not deflate when I baked it.  That’s the baker’s dilemma with cream puffs, they tend to deflate.  So much for cream puffs.  My béchamel sauce was also a first and it was good.  I remember Audrey Hepburn in the classic movie, Sabrina, she went to Paris to study baking and one of her tests was to make a béchamel sauce.  When I was watching the DVD, I thought béchamel sauce is complicated to prepare.  But I did it!

My whole family loved my lasagna dish, which I called Riste d’ Aubergine Lasagne with Bacon and Creamy Béchamel Sauce.   A lot of my friends requested for the recipe when they saw the pictures I posted in Facebook and Instagram.

Here’s the recipe and I hope you’ll be blessed with beginner’s luck with Riste d’Aubergine.

Riste d’ Aubergine Lasagne with Bacon and Creamy Béchamel Sauce

Ingredients:

650 g bottle  Riste d’ Aubergine (any French or Spanish brand or you can make your own)

1 big head garlic, chopped

1 big onion, chopped

Salt

Brown sugar

Pure olive oil

Extra virgin olive oil

Dried Rosemary

250 g bacon (preferably with little fat and honey maple syrup but regular bacons will do)

500 g lasagna noodles (any French or Spanish brand cooked al dente)

Bechamel Sauce:

5 tbsp salted butter

5 tbsp all purpose flour

250 ml all purpose cream

250 ml evaporated filled milk

1 tsp brown sugar

Ready to bake!

Let’s Do It:

Lasagna Noodles

1.    Cook lasagna in boiling water with 1 tsp vegetable oil and 1 tsp salt until al dente (firm to the bite).  Set aside.

Bacon

In a large flat pan, lay the strips of bacon over low to medium heat, wait until the strips are fried in their own oil.  Let them sizzle until they turn medium brown.  Set aside.

Frying the bacon

Riste d’ Aubergine Sauce

1. In the same pan, add 2 tbsp pure olive oil to the bacon oil.  Saute the chopped garlic and onion until onions are transparent.
2. Pour the Riste d’ Aubergine Sauce and simmer for 5 minutes over low heat, stir occasionally. 
3. Add 1 tsp of salt and 3 tsps of brown sugar, stir for a minute.
4. Sprinkle with approx. 1 tsp of dried rosemary.
5. Drizzle 2 tsps extra virgin olive oil over the mixture, stir and simmer for another 2 minutes.
6. Remove from heat.

Bechamel Sauce

1. In a saucepan, melt butter over low heat (be careful not to burn).
2. Pour flour and stir until the mixture turns sandy in texture and medium brown.  Set aside.
3. In a medium casserole, mix all purpose cream and evaporated filled milk, stir until well blended.  Add brown sugar and stir well.  Now turn on the stove to low heat, wait until the mixture is just about to boil.  Quickly turn off the stove.
4. Put the saucepan containing the flour mixture over low heat then pour approx 1 cup of the cream-milk mixture.  Mix and stir well.  Do this process repeatedly until all the cream-milk mixture is poured into the flour mixture.  Stir well.  (You may use an electric mixer for this if you want a finer texture.  But an egg whisker would be just as fine.  Do not worry about tiny lumps, they’ll disappear once the lasagna is baked).  Adjust heat to medium and let the mixture boil for 5-8 minutes with constant stirring until it thickens.  Turn off the stove once mixture thickens to avoid burning.
5. The bechamel sauce should be a thicker mixture, test this by dipping a fork into the mixture, if there are no drippings, then the béchamel is already creamy.  You may add more flour if the mixture is quite liquid.   

Flour and butter mixture

Cream and milk make the bechamel creamier

  

Assembling:

1.  In a greased 9x11 baking dish, lay flat the first batch of lasagna noodles horizontally, then layer with another batch vertically (as if you are weaving). 
2. Pour part of the Riste d’ Aubergine Sauce and spread until the lasagna noodles are covered.  Arrange the strips of bacon on top.  Then, pour part of the creamy béchamel sauce.  Spread until only the béchamel sauce is seen. 
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 in order.
4. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil. 

Bake!

1. Pre-heat oven at 175 F for 5 minutes.
2. Bake the lasagna over 175 F for 20 minutes.
3. Remove the foil then bake for another 5 minutes. 

Voila! Riste d' Aubergine Lasagne with Bacon and Creamy Bechamel Sauce

My creamy slice of heaven

There, you now have a festive pasta dish that your family and friends will love.  Riste d’ Aubergine Lasagne with Bacon and Creamy Bechamel Sauce, You’re So Beautifood!