Pasta Carla-ara (or: Midnight in the Garden of Good Eats)

For months now, my friend Carla has been talking some big talk about how she knew where to acquire the best carbonara in town. I've been known to crave this delectable dish and have even devoted a blog post to it, so of course I needed to investigate this rather audacious claim.

We waited a while till the weather grew cooler, then Carla pronounced it Carbonara Time. On the appointed day, we met at La Traviata, a sweet little restaurant on Congress Avenue that I'd been to, but it had been years. As I battled to find free parking (I have a strong aversion to paying for parking, particularly when the closest lot to the restaurant costs $10 for the privilege of occupying a space for an hour or two), I groused that THIS was why I didn't like eating dinner downtown.

But as we entered the restaurant, my irritation dissipated almost instantly. La Traviata is small and packed, but it has an elegant, cozy feel to it that is utterly charming. We snagged a small table in one of the nooks near a street window, under a sparkling chandelier.

Almost immediately, our affable server provided us with sustenance, in the form of a basket full of bread with an olive oil accompaniment.



We ordered, enjoyed a lovely bottle of wine, and chatted...until this came along and rendered us mute.



Truly the most perfect carbonara I've ever had the pleasure of encountering, this specimen was composed of perfectly al dente pasta, gently piled and sprinkled with bread crumbs, then lovingly topped with a nest of slivered scallions and a farm fresh egg that was simply stunning in its simplicity. The sauce was surprisingly light - perhaps with a touch of lemon? - balancing out the rich pancetta and steering the entire dish away from the heaviness that I often encounter in a carbonara. I swooned with my first bite, and am still swooning, days later. This carbonara changed carbonara for me forever.


Love.

How does one top that meal? One doesn't. We opted out of dessert and retired to Carla's house for more wine and an after-dark tour of Carla's amazing gardens.

Carla is the co-owner of Austin Urban Gardens, and her garden at home is a testament to her prowess in that department. Despite the fact that it was pitch black outside and windy (making focusing extremely tricky, as you'll see below), I endeavored to photograph some of the fruits of her labors.













Some of the bounty that's already been harvested:


Radishes


Chocolate Cherry Tomato

I could not have imagined a more delightful evening. Memorable food, wonderful company, and a passel of inspiration for gardening (I've added an EarthBox to my Christmas wishlist). As if that weren't enough, you can bet that I'll now be the first in the car if anyone suggests driving downtown for dinner.

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In Celebration of Bacon (Sorta)

Seeing as how it's International Bacon Day today and all, I'd been seeing a lot of tweets from my foodie friends about that mouthwatering meat. A girl (OK, this girl) can only take so much of that kind of thing before a massive craving sets in, and set in it did. My brain became fixated on having myself a big bowl of carbonara.

I had never made carbonara before, but I was feeling adventurous, so I decided to try my hand at making it rather than heading to a restaurant. So I swung by the store and picked up the ingredients (along with a whole slew of other goodies I hadn't intended to purchase) and dove in. Bacon-celebrating purists may criticize, but I ended up with pancetta rather than bacon, 'cause it just looked so dang good (and because I personally think pancetta is much better in this particular dish). Pancetta has been called the Italian version of bacon; both are made from pork belly, but bacon is brined and smoked, whereas pancetta is seasoned with salt and pepper, wrapped up into a big roll, and cured.

Like this.

To make the carbonara, I more or less followed this recipe, which I'm going to copy here in my own words, because I'm paranoid that one day I'll want to go back to a recipe that I've linked to and it'll have gone the way of the mastadon. Also, I tweaked it a little...as usual.

Pasta Carbonara

INGREDIENTS:
* 1 lb spaghetti
* 1 lb pancetta, thickly cut (I got mine in slices about 1/3" thick)
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup freshly grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese + extra to sprinkle on top
* 4 cloves of garlic, minced
* 1 T olive oil
* freshly ground pepper
* white wine (about 1/4 cup - amount isn't critical)
* chopped Italian parsley

DIRECTIONS:
1. Boil water for your spaghetti (as you'll see from the photo below, I accidentally grabbed a package of cappellini. I think spaghetti would be better for this application).

2. Cut the pancetta into cubes.

3. Heat a frying pan on medium and add the olive oil, garlic, and minced pancetta. Cook until a lot of the fat on the pancetta has cooked off and the meat is pretty well browned. Take the pan off the heat and add the white wine, then put the pan back on low heat and let it simmer.


Sizzlin' pancetta.

4. At some point during the pancetta-cooking process, your spaghetti water will boil. Add the pasta.

5. In a big bowl (large enough to fit the entire batch of cooked pasta), crack two eggs, add the cheese, and grind black pepper all over it. Stir the mixture together with a fork.

6. When the pasta is done, strain it, then add it to the bowl with the eggs and cheese and black pepper and STIR. Keep stirring. You don't want the eggs to scramble, but they will be cooking from the heat of the pasta.

7. Add the pancetta to the pasta and mix in. If you want to tell yourself you're being fat-conscious (You do realize you're about to eat a meaty, cheesy, pasta dish, don't you? But suit yourself...), you can scoop out the pancetta and leave the fat + wine mixture behind. But I do think that having at least some of that mixture in the pasta adds a lot (Julia Child would be proud!).

8. Before serving, add a generous helping of the parsley, some more freshly ground black pepper, and a sprinkle of cheese.

9. Bliss out. You can start your diet tomorrow.

Or not.

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