SavouryPeklyn Teo

creamy carbonara

SavouryPeklyn Teo
creamy carbonara

Carbonara as we know it is a simple egg yolk, guanciale, parmesan pasta dish. Having lived in Malaysia and Singapore, the locals have come to create our own creamy version of carbonara. Walk into any cafe and if you see carbonara, its probably the local version. Packed with creamy deliciousness and with mushrooms added, this is a dish that’s worth a post.

Last week, my partner requested for carbonara which got me wondering if the request was for the OG or the local version. Then, over a conversation with a good friend, she was raving about the carbonara at Pacamara (some hip cafe along Thomson) so I googled for the ingredients and decided to come up with my own version of it. Long story short, it was a hit.

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Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 knob of butter

  • Olive oil

  • 3 cloves of garlic

  • 5 -6 rashers of streaky bacon chopped into 2cm slices (use more if you want)

  • 200g white button mushrooms

  • 1 box of shimeji mushrooms (with the bottom cut off)

  • 200ml cooking cream (or you can use heavy cream as a substitute)

  • A dash of truffle oil (optional)

  • Pinch of salt

  • Parmesan Cheese

  • Pasta (I used vermicelli as I like the thickness of it)

Method

First, get your pasta going. Boil water in a pot and salt it liberally. When the water comes to a boil, put in your pasta and then add a splash of olive oil so that it won’t stick together. Make sure to check on your pasta from time to time. We want the consistency of the pasta to be just slightly undercooked.

While your pasta is boiling, you can add some oil to a pan, and add in your butter, garlic and bacon for about 3-4 min. Once the bacon is fully cooked, add in the mushrooms and continue frying. When the mushrooms have softened, add the cream and a pinch of salt. Stir together and let it simmer over a medium flame. Grate in some parmesan cheese and taste as you go along. When the pasta is ready, simply take it out of the boiling water and immediately add it to your sauce. Spoon about 1/2 cup of pasta water (very important not to throw away the pasta water!) into the sauce and this will keep your pasta from sticking. Let your pasta continue cooking in the sauce until it reduces for another 3-4 min or so.

When done, drizzle some truffle oil over your pasta, give it a good mix, grate more parmesan cheese over the top and serve!