sausage carbonara.

my virgin experience at cooking in dec 2008 last year during my hols, and its none other than



sausage carbonara!

serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 good-quality organic Italian sausages (of course you can easily substitute with meat balls easily purchased from NTUC, Cold Storage, etc)
• olive oil ( this is just a healthier alternative for your normal oil used at home)
• 4 slices of thickly cut pancetta, chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (normal salt would do fine!)
• 500g dried linguine
• 4 large free-range or organic egg yolks (normal egg would go well)
• 100ml double cream ( purchased from Cold Storage)
• 100g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• zest of 1 lemon (lemon really freshens the whole taste and makes it taste lighter, esp for people who find the taste of cheese pungent after awhile)
• a sprig of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• extra virgin olive oil (normal oil would do)



1) With a sharp knife, slit the sausage skins lengthways and pop all the meat out. Using wet hands, roll little balls of sausagemeat about the size of large marbles and place them to one side.
(Here, if we just use the meat balls as substitute, we could entirely skip this step)

2) Heat a large frying pan and add a good splash of olive oil. Gently fry the sausage meatballs until golden brown all over, then add the pancetta and continue cooking for a couple of minutes, until it’s golden.
( you could even add more bacon if you want)

3) While this is cooking, bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the linguine, and cook according to the packet instructions.

4) In a large bowl, whip up the egg yolks, cream, half the Parmesan, the lemon zest and parsley. When the pasta is cooked, drain it in a colander, reserving a little of the cooking water, and immediately toss it quickly with the egg mixture back in the pasta pan. Add the hot sausage meatballs and toss everything together. The egg will cook delicately from the heat of the linguine, just enough for it to thicken and not scramble. The sauce should be smooth and silky.

5) If the pasta becomes a little claggy, add a few spoonfuls of the reserved cooking water to loosen it slightly.

6) Sprinkle over the rest of the Parmesan, season if necessary, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve. Eat immediately!
(olive oil to prevent the noodles from sticking together. could even drizzle more lemon juice on the pasta)



i personally fancy this dish alot because i like carbonara and i wasnt disappointed :)

courtesy of jamie oliver