Spring Vegetable Carbonara

Carbonara is such a dirty word.  Not only is it a sauce made from bacon, eggs, and cheese, but the eggs are only partially cooked.  This dish is just asking to condemned, and condemned it is.  I have a hard time being mean to carbonara, however, largely due to the fact that it's just so damn delicious.  Similar to the reaction I had when I found the risotto recipe, I knew that I had to try this slightly healthier version of carbonara.

Due to a clerical error on my part, I ended up buying green beans instead of asparagus.  I don't think that this changed the dish much, but I would have preferred to make the recipe as written.  I also used low-sodium bacon.  I don't see any harm in this, but I would not recommend using turkey bacon.  Turkey bacon doesn't render out enough fat to cook the pepper in.  It also lacks that decadent taste that is instantly recognizable as real bacon.

It's been well documented on this blog that I am very particular about the thickness of soups and sauces.  I was a little worried that my sauce would be too thick.  I definitely added some of the cooking water to my sauce, as the recipe suggests.  Unfortunately, I added to much and it was a little thin for my liking.  Also, the recipe claims that the sauce will thicken as you stir, but it's not nearly as much as you would think.  Be stingy if you add some of the cooking water back in.

So by now you probably want to know how it tastes.  I think it's a good attempt.  It definitely had a silky texture for the sauce.  There was the bacon and cheese.  The vegetables were a really nice addition instead of having only peas rolling around in cholesterol.  I would have no problem eating this dish many more times if it saves hundreds of calories over the traditional version.  Aside from the egg part, it looks like carbonara doesn't have to be such a dirty word after all.