TheLindsayist

Kitchen sink carbonara and the Subjects

We played last night at the Middle East in Cambridge, which was a pleasure every which way. Even despite Tim’s cut finger opening up onstage, splattering blood all across his already red and white guitar. I found it so distracting, I started the next song in a completely wrong key.

The Subjects also played, a terrific band on tour from New York that you can hear here. Not only did they play a set that left us all quite giddy, they are delightful gentlemen and gracious guests. When we found our late-night Chinese food plans thwarted [no 24-hour Peking ravioli in JP, alas], we all agreed homemade pasta did in fact sound better than take-out pizza. Turns out they’re enthusiastic, adventurous eaters. I had dough all over my hands so I didn’t take pictures, but they did, so maybe I’ll add some later. Over reports of cross-country BBQ comparisons, we ate the following, a what’s-in-the-crisper variation on pasta carbonara.

Mark Bittman’s egg pasta recipe, recounted here from memory i.e.

2 cups flour
3 eggs
Pinch salt, water as needed

Flour in a bowl, make a well in the middle with a spoon, crack an egg into that and with a fork, start whisking the egg so it incorporates flour as it mixes. At some point in this process, add the salt. When it’s too dry to manipulate, crack another egg and repeat until all three eggs have incorporated all the flour. Ball up the dough and knead it for about a minute until it is smooth and pliable, and add a little water if it’s too dry. Split the dough into four balls. Roll out as you like – we use a little metal crank pasta machine – and drop in boiling, salted, oiled water for about two minutes until it’s tender.

Kitchen Sink Carbonara

Couple ounces pancetta, chopped
Half a red onion, diced
Big clove of garlic
One Chinese eggplant, chopped
2 eggs
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp olive oil

In a skillet, sauté pancetta until crisp and mostly rendered. Add onion, sauté until soft and sweet, about 4 minutes. Sliver garlic and add to skillet. Add eggplant and fry until tender but browned. In a bowl, whisk eggs and cheese. Cook pasta; drain, but do not rinse, and reserve about ¾ cup of the cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot with the reserved cooking water; toss with the fried eggplant mixture. Pour egg mixture over the pasta and toss to coat. The heat of the pasta will cook the egg. If the pasta is too dry, drizzle with a bit more olive oil. Grate extra cheese to taste, and finish with freshly ground black pepper. Sleep a few hours, wake up and make brunch.

Stuffed Zucchini

What we might have here is a new entry into the “look who got a farmshare and is now writing painfully obvious recipes from the contents.” You know – we have some basil, some okra, some corn and some peppers, and then suddenly there’s a recipe for basil okra corn and pepper salad – just toss with vinaigrette! – and aren’t we clever? Well, that’s what you’re going to get here. This was supposed to include tomatoes but they’d spoiled, so you’ll never know, and I think the only reason the filling does not employ Parmesan is that it was 10:00 and I was loopy. Now that you’ve been warned:

3 zucchini, sliced in halves lengthwise, stubs removed and innards scooped out, chopped and reserved

1 tbsp olive oil

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 white onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp thyme leaves

1/2 lb. ground turkey; I used a mix of white and dark meat

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp salt

ground black pepper to taste

1 egg, beaten

Oven 400

Heat oil in a deep saucepan; saute onions until sweet and soft, just under ten minutes; add carrots and do the same until tender, then add garlic and salt. Add ground turkey, chopping up a bit with your spatula and browning the meat until it’s done and a bit more flavorful. Add wine, simmer another five minutes. Remove from heat.

In a separate, heat-resistant bowl, mix bread crumbs and egg to a paste, and add meat-vegetable mixture, tossing well to combine.

Salt and pepper the inside of your zucchini canoes, drizzle with olive oil and spoon in filling. Cover with foil and insert into oven. Bake 20 minutes, then remove foil for the final ten. By this point, your filling should have crisped and your zucchini will be tender.