Thursday 4 August 2011

Speck Fettucini

Last night I came to the conclusion that sometimes, despite all the carbless and protein focussed diets out there, besides chocolate, a woman needs pasta.... and the requisition of this pasta must always be 'GOOOOOD and fulfilling'!!!!
Moreover, there is way too little pasta on this blog... so let's get some change into that.

Chef Raffaella made a good and rather healthy fettucini for me a couple of months ago and it didn't get lost in my database of mouthwatering pictures of food, it was just on hold for the right moment. Its moment has come to shine!

Ingredients:

  • 400 gr fettucine or tagliatelle
  • 4 zucchini
  • 200 gr mushrooms
  • 150 gr bacon cubes (Italian call this speck, which is a gourmet version of bacon)
  • olive oil
  • garlic 
How to make it:
Heat up a pan of water with a fist of salt for your pasta and bring it to a boil. When it boils, add the pasta and cook it according to what is written on the packaging. Keep the indication for 'al dente' pasta as you will be cooking it some more in the end together with the sauce in your frying pan.
Cut up the vegetables in little cubes and slices.
While you cook the pasta you heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, fry the garlic and add the zucchini for a couple of minutes until they get tender. Then you add the mushrooms and some salt. Add a couple of tablespoons of pastawater and let it simmer for circa 5 minutes with the lid on. After which you add the bacon cubes. Give it a good stir and let it simmer for another 10 minutes but keep an eye on the pan as you want to avoid the sauce of getting dry. If it does, add some of the pasta water into the sauce.
Once your pasta is cooked al dente, take it out of the pan with a pastaspoon or a pair of pincers as you want the pasta to remain wet while adding it to the sauce. Pastawater contains starch that will densify the sauce a bit. Stir the whole for a couple of minutes on a low 'fire' and then you are done!

Outcome: Italian mamma approved fettucine!!!



Speck Fettucine

Baci
Chef Raffaella