A simple 3 courses
Starter - Roasted peppers
Main - Spaghetti carbonnera
Dessert - Tiramasu

For the starter you need 1 pepper per person (red are nice and sweet)

Simply cut the peppers in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds and white pith. Lay on an oiled tray. Into each pepper put 4-6 halves of cherry or baby plum tomatoes, 2 or 3 anchovies, a couple of fresh basil leaves and a good glug of the best extra virgin olive oil you can afford. good twist of black pepper and salt, Roast for 20-25 mins on gas 5/6


For the main, big pan of boiling water, add spaghetti (500gms will do 4 ppl) takes 12 mins too cokk giving time to do below.
While that is cooking, take a big handful of smoked bacon lardons and half a finely chopped onion and get then in a pan to fry.
For the sauce, into a bowl put 3 egg yolks (nice and fresh) a small pot of single (250ml) cream and a big handful of finely grated parmesan and a good big pinch of white pepper. whisk it all together.

When the spaghetti is cooked, drain well and return to pan. Add in the nice crispy smoked bacon bits and onion, give it a good stir. Then quickly add the sauce and mix in as quickly as possible to avoid scrambling the egg. Lovely stuff, serve up hot with a sprinkle of parmesan on top.

For the pudding, goddamn, just buy a nice tiramasu from tesco :)
( RadG Drinking Mojitos in the sun, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 18:06, 2 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

carbonara is better without the cream
for 2 people you need 3 eggs, beaten with 50g of grated parmesan, shitloads of parsley and black pepper.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 20:35, Reply)

The variations are endless arn't they
When I do this at home, I just use 2 egg yolks per person with parmesan.

But if you remove the egg whites and use cream as above, it is far less likely to scramble when you add the sauce to the pasta and is much more beginner friendly.

Black pepper is true to most classic recipes, but my Italian grandmother had dentures, and so would always use white pepper so there would be no tiny bits of black pepper sticking under her false teeth!

Mum and my aunts on the Italian side use black pepper, so it is only me who sticks to grannies recipe. They call me a philistine for using white pepper, I tell them they are only half Italian and know nothing ;)

But parsley? nooooooo
( RadG Drinking Mojitos in the sun, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 21:08, Reply)

I heart your sig
it's my favourite line in all the discworld novels.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 21:18, Reply)

Haha, sig win.

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 21:04, Reply)