quick carbonara (sort of)

Going to rattle off a quick lunch for you today – it’s carbonara, but without the double cream and lovely cheese and egg – instead, using a bit of Quark and egg yolk to mix it through. Before I get to that, and I’ll need to be quick as I’ve got a Doctor Who appointment in fifteen minutes, I confess myself disappointed. See we’ve been furiously buying new books to populate our massive bookcase and I thought, you know, let’s have a trip down Memory Lane. It can’t all be Nigella Lawson and Bill Bryson books. So I nipped onto Amazon to buy the two books I used to love as a nipper – Martin’s Mice by Dick King Smith and My Best Fiend by Sheila Lavelle. Well, honestly. I appreciate I’m viewing them with the jaundiced eye of an adult, but they’re bobbins. I’d finished both books in the time it took to fill my bath. 

And that saddens me. Obviously there are things we experience as a child that we don’t want to feel again as an adult – getting your bottom wiped, or the gentle caress of a whispering vicar, but wouldn’t it have been nice to have at least enjoyed a book that used to bring me so much joy. It also means I’m stuck on new books to buy, because I can’t face having my heart broken again by some insipid story or turgid bit of fiction. Paul’s easy enough – he buys intellectual books full of big words and covers that look like they’d give chartered accountants an erection. To demonstrate, I looked at the last two books we bought from Amazon: I shelled out for a second-hand copy of Delia’s How To Be Frugal, Paul spent his hard-earned money on ‘Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain’, a book that frankly sounds so boring that I drifted off halfway through reading out the title and started thinking about cats. Put another way, we have two magazine subscriptions that get delivered here – one is Viz magazine, the other is Private Eye. Tsk. Snob. I have everything Stephen King has ever published, Paul has a book on tunnels. I suppose they say opposites attract.

Anyway enough of that – tonight’s recipe:

sorta carbonara

to make cheat’s carbonara, you will need:

  • 200g pasta (we used tagliatelle)
  • 6 bacon medallions chopped neatly (you can use up your bacon from our meat box deal with Musclefood – click here for that!)
  • three tablespoons of Quark
  • 30g parmesan
  • 2 tablespoons of fromage frais
  • bit of cheddar
  • two egg yolks

to make cheat’s carbonara, you should:

  • boil the pasta and cook the bacon off
  • mix together everything else
  • then mix EVERYTHING together

I know, simple, but still…!

J

Comments

comments

9 thoughts on “quick carbonara (sort of)

  1. I tried the slimming world carbonara but it says not to cook the eggs…..just add to the mixture at the end as the pan is warm enough and “should cook them”. Well..it doesn’t. It’s like a big pan of snot. Has anyone else had better luck?

  2. First of all I am new to your blog and bloody love it! Secondly, my only concern is that the eggs won’t be cooked through if I just throw it all in together? Should I make the sauce in a pan when the bacon is cooked and then throw it all in with the pasta?

  3. Love love love this recipe
    I make it about once every other week, but this week we added a tsp of English Mustard to it to give it a little kick! Marvellous
    thanks lads
    x

  4. I live in Australia I emigrated 8 years ago and low fat in the same sentence doesn’t exist here
    Can’t find quark anywhere same for muller lite so have to try and work round It
    It’s very frustrating. You struggle to find most low fat stuff where I live
    Love your blog they really cheer me up
    England is looking very appealing at the minute

    • I live in France and I can’t get quark or cottage cheese. Can anyone suggest some alternatives? Love the blog, especially as I am from Newcastle so know all the places you talk about

    • Hi Tricia
      I also now live in aus and doing sw.

      Just to let you know you can buy quark in wollies….
      At our one it’s in the section with the pots of mozzarella balls and feta cheese etc…
      Hope this helps.
      Can also buy quark yogurt
      I use the coconut one in curries. 😉

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