Attempt #2: Sausage Carbonara

Thought that it will be good and easy enough to try out pasta in my second attempt.

The recipe for Jaime’s Sausage Carbonara looks so, so simple and the photo shot of the dish look so, so yummy! Here’s how I see it:

 

Simple + Yummy = Good idea for a Chef Wannabe

 
 

But, here’s what went down:

(First) 5 min : I stared at the pasta.

Any of you ever had problems of trying to gauge how much pasta to cook? Or am I the only one? Here's the thing...too little, you get too much sauce leftover. Too much, you have pasta going to waste. Perhaps it is time I invest in a pasta measurer.  

(Next) 10 min : I stared at the Italian sausages.

Recipe says ‘With a sharp knife, slit the sausage skins lengthways and pop all the meat out. Using wet hands, roll little balls of sausage meat about the size of large marbles and place them to one side.’

Firstly, I have never thought that I could actually make use of those sausages that we get from the Deli and make them into meatballs.

Then, I was questioning if the sausage skins were that easy to slit. How much pressure do I have to use?

(Next) 15 min :

Tried slitting the sausage skins. OMG!!! Miracle!!! It actually slit opened perfectly!

It was like an Eureka moment for me! What a great way of making meatballs. The sausages were already pre-mix with herbs and best of all, it stays together easily. The ball making was really easy and fun!

See the before picture and after pic of the Italian Sauages. 



BEFORE = I AM A SAUSAGE

AFTER = I AM A MEATBALL

 (Next) 30 min :

The cooking process started. I followed the step by step guide provided in the recipe. Some learnings to look out for in future:  

1.  Never grate the lemon beyond the yellow part of the lemon peel (skin) as the white inner part is actually bitter.

2.  When I tossed the cooked pasta into the egg mixture directly, it did not thicken as described in the recipe. So, I had to heat up the pan. Only then it helped to thicken the mixture well.

3.  The Italian sausages/ meatballs should not be fried in the pan for too long as they become hard. My mistake was that I was afraid they were not cooked and I usually like my meat well done. Hence, the meatballs were not as juicy as it should be.

The Result:

Overall, the pasta was quite yummy. The taste of the lemon zest was a perfect touch to the salty cheese mix and cream. The lemon also provided an amazing bitter sweet fragrance to the sauce and dish.

Attaching Jamie's Sausage Carbonara below:

 

Ahem...I did replace linguini with angel eye pasta and pancetta with mushrooms. Figured too much meat.

But linguini does make the dish look 'sexier' and the pancetta added colors to the dish which is definitely lacking in mine.

 

 

FUN FACTS: Did you know? The word carbonara is derived from the Italian word for charcoal, and its origins are as a sauce served with pasta to the coal miners in Italy in the mid-1900’s.