Today I decided the first step in familiarizing yourself within a new area is to go to the grocery store. Having just moved to Hoboken I woke up excited to search for a small business from which to obtain ingredients for a home cooked meal but was quickly deterred once I witnessed the nor'easter drenching my window with sideways flooding rains. I still wanted to cook and settled on hitting the A&P instead.
I of course wanted to look at the meat available, with which I was quite impressed, the beautifully sized leg of lamb crossed my mind. Then I remembered that I would be counting completely on the equipment which my roommate already possessed, assuming it wouldnt be much. I also had, much like I normally do, pork on the mind, specifically pancetta.
I could come up with many reasons for why I chose to make carbonara.. the rainy weather, the spring weather on the way, the last chance to have a heavier winter dish, as well as my over-all craving for a decent pasta dish.
So I grabbed the following ingredients:
whole wheat fettucini, 1.25 lb hunk of pancetta (some for the freezer), light cream, 1 red onion and eggs. I forgot peas.
I had a little bit of a guilt trip once I had decided to make carbonara and hoped, falsely, that the whole wheat pasta would offset all of the pork and dairy, but hey you only live once.
So once I arrived home my attempt at beginning to mise was brought to an abrupt halt once I realized this kitchen was missing one essential thing, A CUTTING BOARD! Huge fail on my part.
I will not admit as to how I cut what I wanted to cut, but lets just say I will be buying a cuttingboard tomorrow before work.
As I continued to prepare the dinner I began to discover other essential and simple things missing such as a wooden spoon or decent saute pan yet I barreled forward determined to complete my dinner. I began crisping the poorly minced pancetta in a scratched non-stick pan while I sliced the red onion. Added the red onion to caramelize in the fat while the pancetta continued to crisp. I did all of this while my pasta water was coming to a boil.
I added cream to the pancetta and onion mixture, and let that reduce. By the time I had tossed the whole wheat pasta into this mixture there was absolutely nothing healthy going on and figured, "why not an egg?"
