Brussels Sprouts Spaghetti Carbonara Gluten-free Bacon with Brussels Sprouts Made with pantry and refrigerator basics, spaghetti carbonara is a shockingly great, gluten-free pasta dish. Plan a trip to Italy tonight!
Two days after sharing my Back on Track Green Detox Smoothie—which, I might add is so delicious and is bridging generational gaps—I realize it might seem a little counterproductive posting a pasta dish with cheese and bacon. Holy Cow this recipe is too good to hang onto for another minute. Spaghetti Carbonara made with bacon and Brussels sprouts is just amazing!
Great Scott, where has the time gone? I have no idea why it’s taken me almost four years to publish a recipe for a dish I well recall having on Ben’s and my vacation to Italy over four years ago. But the other night dinner reminded me of one of the nicest meals we had on our trip after Ben made a fantastic Cacio e Pepe, pasta with cheese and black pepper.
Lunch looked like it did yesterday. Ben and I stopped at a lovely trattoria on a stone street in Rome on a scorching September afternoon somewhere between the Spanish Steps, Pantheon, and Trevi Fountain. The alleyway was small. We honestly had no idea where we were, but after dividing a carafe of vino de la house and a couple dishes of pasta, we figured it out. Looking about following our cheers to a great morning of sightseeing, I really questioned whether we had happened upon a movie set. The scene was weird yet absolutely wonderful.
Our forks landed on the food before the server left; our plates came out fast. Although Italian restaurants offer pasta as a first course, the amounts were modest; however, it was absolutely better than any pasta we had ever eaten and I vividly remember how Ben so brilliantly characterized his order, Spaghetti alla Carbonara — humbling. Though I chuckled, he was right. It was just amazing! Still more amazing is how basic it was. Pasta, bacon, egg, pepper, cheese, garlic, onion, Made with excellent ingredients, the simplest meals—as I often say—always taste the best. Not hurting was being in Italy.
Inspired, I decided to replicate the dish Ben ordered from that trattoria in Italy and give it a winter makeover adding caramelized brussels sprouts and onions. I believe that spaghetti carbonara as we know it should always incorporate this delicious mix!
INGREDIENTS:
Made from eggs, salt, pepper, and freshly grated parmesan cheese, rich and creamy sauce gently covers gluten-free spaghetti, crisp bacon, caramelized shallots and sliced brussels sprouts.
This is a basic Bacon and Brussels Sprouts Spaghetti Carbonara. ravenous. Craiveable. Must try!
Knowing how easy it is with basic refrigerator and pantry items, I shall be cooking it all the time now. After the shallots and brussels sprouts, saut the bacon; toss with cooked pasta and eggs whisked with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Season with lots of coarse black pepper; then face plant. Just keep on.
- Whisk two eggs with salt and heaps of coarsely crushed black pepper until smooth; then whisk in three-fourth cup freshly grated parmesan cheese. This is really the dish’s sauce, thus don’t cut back on the salt or the pepper specifically. Though I have a pepper grinder at home for ordinary, daily cooking, I still keep a jar of finely ground black pepper on hand for dishes like this. I still find it amazing how large the ground peppercorns were in the pasta meals Ben and I ate in Rome!
2. Set the eggs and cheese aside; next cut 12 ounces of brussels sprouts. I eat Brussels sprouts as often as possible throughout the fall and winter when they are practically stacked into massive sprout mountains on the produce end caps at the grocery store. I am rather much like this. That peak is one I would not mind climbing now.
Before throwing up the towel and leaving to find some Yoshinoya, or whatever, when I lived there for a summer in college, did I ever tell you I made it like twenty minutes into a trek up Mt Fuji, as in the ACTUAL MOUNT FUJI in Japan? Boningk. ( Not that I would have reached the top, but you know what I mean.)
After cutting the end off of every sprout, next remove any loose outer leaves and send them through a food processor set with the slicing disk (here’s the food processor I have >). You might cut each sprout with a mandolin or a sharp knife instead.
Quite handy are pre-shredded brussels sprouts sold in several supermarkets. If you can find a pack, you will need 8oz shredded brussels sprouts—the weight after cutting 12oz whole brussels sprouts.
Alrighty, now ready to start cooking? Leaving the extra bacon grease in the skillet, first cut four crisp 4 slices of bacon in a large 10-12′- skillet then place to a paper towel-lined dish to drain. To equal two tablespoons fat overall, add enough additional virgin olive oil to the skillet.
Add the shredded brussels sprouts along with one large sliced shallot or one-half tiny sliced onion then season with salt and pepper, increase the heat up slightly, and then sauté until the sprouts are deeply caramelized and soft, 8–10 minutes. Next sauté for one more minute after adding two minced garlic cloves.
After stirring the cooked bacon back in, take the skillet off the burner.
Cooking:
Cook 8 ounces standard or gluten-free spaghetti in a large pot of salted, boiling water simultaneously.
I began crisping bacon when I started boiling the water, then dropped the pasta in when I added the brussels sprouts and shallots to the skillet. About gluten-free pasta, Barilla is my ride or die. The spaghetti version is exactly the same. I cannot find one difference.
Once the spaghetti is al dente:
Move it over to the skillet with the brussels sprout mixture using tongs—once more, this should be off the heat. Add the cheese and whisked egg mixture; then, begin to swirl and toss the pasta until it is uniformly covered. Ladle some of the pasta boiling water to get the sauce to the creamy consistency you want, and don’s worry about the raw eggs as the heat from the pasta, pasta water, and brussels sprouts will cook it through.
Just want to stress one more time that the skillet should be off the heat so you get a silky, creamy egg sauce, instead of scrambled eggs!
If you would want, sprinkle the spaghetti carbonara on plates with more freshly grated parmesan cheese; then, savor!
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