While I love tomato-based pasta dishes, there are times when I crave for the white sauce-based ones. Carbonara is the only white sauce pasta I cook at home. Instead of the usual spaghetti or fettuccini, I use linguine in my carbonara because for me it has the right thickness, not too thin and not too wide.
This recipe is based from how I cook it and not adopted from other recipes found in cookbooks or online. Not to boast, but this dish is well-loved not only by my husband and our families but also by my closed friends and my godchildren. It’s creamy, buttery, sweet, salty, tasty, flavorful and all. In short, delicious. Haha.
What you will need:
500g linguine pasta (I use San Remo)
1 200g pack of Nestle All Purpose Cream
1 cup béchamel (thick mixture of flour, butter, water and salt)
1 cup water
2 tbsp. olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup ham, cubed (I use CDO’s Premium Holiday ham because of its smoky-sweet flavor)
1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped
4 pcs. fresh tomatoes, deseeded and sliced
4 pcs. hard-boiled egg, sliced (for toppings)
salt, sugar and ground black pepper to taste
Cooking Directions:
1. Boil linguine according to package instructions.
2. In a pan, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and cook until golden brown.
3. Add the ham. Stir until cooked or when the edges have turned golden brown as well.
4. Add the béchamel, followed by the cream and the water. Stir.
5. Throw in the carrots, then the fresh tomatoes. Simmer for five minutes. (Make sure the tomatoes don’t get overcooked, meaning, the skin has already peeled off the flesh.)
6. Adjust the taste by adding salt, sugar and ground black pepper.
7. Remove from heat.
8. Arrange the pasta in a big bowl. Pour over the sauce. Top with hard-boiled eggs.
9. Serve with a smile.
The sauce may not appear to be thick and that’s okay. It should be enough to cover the linguine noodles.
This recipe yields six to eight servings.
TIP: As with any other pasta variety, the linguine tends to absorb the sauce which could make the dish dry. You can prevent this by setting aside some sauce for pouring later, that is, when you are about to serve the carbonara.
If ever you get to cook this, please let me know how it turned out. Thanks! 🙂