Yum. Carbonara is one of my favorite dishes. Carbonara with fresh peas and favas is off the charts. I like it with spinach or chard too, or broccoli and basil.

Before you start get everything ready, this comes together really, really fast. I use only a 1/2  pound of past here because I am using so many vegetables. If you want more pasta and adjust the amounts accordingly. This made way more than enough for two of use for dinner.

You’ll need;

• 1/2 pound dried pasta, I used spaghetti
• 1 to 2 cups of fresh vegetables
• 1 tablespoon butter
• garlic scapes, cloves or green garlic
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano cheese
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• pepper and  salt as needed

I used snap peas and shelled favas and garlic scapes. You can use garlic cloves or green garlic. As always, use what is in season and what you have. I just shelled the favas and didn’t bother with peeling the skin off because they are still small and young.

Boil your pasta and while that is cooking saute the vegetables with some butter in a pan big enough to hold all the vegetables and the pasta. you will be tossing all of it together and you need the heat of the pan to gently set the egg mixture.

When the pasta is cooked drain it, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. You need to add a little of the cooking water at the end to make the sauce creamy and pull the whole thing together, so reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water!. Turn the burner off, you don’t want to scramble the eggs. The residual heat will set the egg mixture. Add the pasta to the skillet and toss with the vegetables, and garlic and butter. Add half the cheese and, with metal tongs, toss until well coated, about 1 minute. Add the eggs and toss for 1 minute more.

Add the remaining cheese, salt and pepper to taste, and enough of the reserved cooking water to form a creamy sauce that clings to the noodles. Start with about 1/4 cup of the cooking water, don’t dump all of it in, you might not need it all.

That’s it. I like to add some bread crumbs and extra Parmesan cheese but I forgot to take a picture of it. This was a hard dish to make and take pictures of at the same time :)

If you look at the first picture you can see how the creamy sauce coats everything, that is what you are going for. This is one of those dishes that is more than a sum of it’s parts and so, so delicious. Even better with fresh vegetables!

Enjoy.

Mo