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.