Carbonara in the summer? Absolutely! Carbonara can be reinterpreted based on the season. Here's a lighter version with vegetables and a 'special' ingredient. This summer recipe includes eggs, Parmesan, and pecorino, but the bacon is replaced by lighter ingredients. Chef Luca Pappagallo reinterprets Carbonara with courgettes and lime. In this version, there's no bacon, but there are courgettes browned in a pan with plenty of fresh mint and, of course, pepper. The combination of eggs, Parmesan, and pecorino remains the same to keep the sauce unchanged. After draining the pasta, it's finished cooking in the pan with the vegetables. Then, with the heat off, the egg and cheese mixture is added. The ingredient that gives it an edge? Generously grated lime peel "because the aroma must be very intense."
Ingredients:
Spaghetti 400 g; Zuchinis 500 g; Egg yolk 4; Egg 1; Parmesan Cheese 150 g; Pecorino Romano 20 g
Mint 1 bunch; Lime zest 1; Extra virgin olive oil 4 tbsp; salt
to taste; black pepper to taste
To serve: Lime zest 1; Mint 1 tuft; black pepper to taste
Preparation:
First, trim the courgettes, first cut them in half lengthwise, then into half-moons about half a centimeter thick. Heat a round of oil in a pan and add the prepared courgettes, finely chop a bunch of mint and add it to the pan. Add a generous grind of black pepper, mix and brown everything over medium heat, continue cooking for a few minutes and season with salt. In the meantime, combine the egg yolks, the whole egg, the grated parmesan, the grated pecorino and some ground pepper in a bowl, then mix everything together. After 5-6 minutes of cooking the courgettes, lower the heat to minimum and boil the pasta in boiling salted water. Drain the pasta al dente and transfer it to the pan with the sauce, add a little cooking water to mix the ingredients as best as possible and leave to flavor for a few minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool for about a minute, then add the egg mixture. Mix to obtain a creamy sauce, if necessary add a little more cooking water. Complete by adding the grated zest of a lime. Serve the summer carbonara by adding a little more lime zest, ground pepper and a few leaves of hand-chopped mint to the individual plates. Buon Appetito e grazie a Chef Papagallo.
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