Recipe: Spaghetti Carbonara with a courgette & cucumber salad

We've developed recipes for hearty meals that make use of items that are available regularly at our Community Foodshares.

This recipe is a new idea to try courgette and cucumbers, thanks to Liz Goddard.

Read it below, or download it in PDF format by clicking here:

Spaghetti Carbonara with courgette and cucumber salad.pdf

Download PDF • 308KB

Ingredients: serves 6

Salad

1 fresh cucumber

1 fresh courgette

Salad Dressing

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

6 tbsp oil

2 tbsp vinegar

salt and black pepper

Spaghetti - recommended 70g per adult 50g per child (uncooked weight)

Carbonara Sauce

2 eggs

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

black pepper

100g hard cheese grated

small pack mushrooms sliced

pack smoked bacon, streaky or back

Oil a drizzle

1 large onion sliced

1 tbsp garlic granules

Method

Salad

Cut the cucumber in half (lengthwise) and remove and discard the seeds. Using a peeler cut the cucumber and courgette into ribbons. Chop the small left over bits of cucumber and courgette that are tricky to cut into ribbons. Place all the cucumber and courgette into a bowl.

Dressing

Put the mustard, oil and vinegar into a jam jar and give it a good shake. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour it over the courgette and cucumber and toss the salad.

Spaghetti

Cook the spaghetti in a saucepan of boiling water as per instructions on the packet. While the spaghetti is cooking prepare the carbonara sauce. Retain some of the pasta water for later.

Sauce

Put two eggs in a bowl and whisk. Add the wholegrain mustard, half a teaspoon of black pepper, and the grated cheese, and mix. Set aside.

Slice mushrooms and put in a large dry frying pan over medium to high heat. Do not move until brown on one side. Then stir occasionally until evenly coloured. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Slice bacon into thin strips and put in the same frying pan with a drizzle of oil. Fry until almost crispy. Set aside.

Add the sliced onion with a little oil to the same frying pan. Fry the onions for two minutes and add the garlic granules and cook for one minute. Return the bacon and mushrooms to the frying pan and stir. Remove the frying pan from the heat.

Assemble

Add the cooked spaghetti to the frying pan. Mix together. It is important that the frying pan is not too hot. Add the cheese/egg mixture into the frying pan and stir. Add a couple of spoonfuls of pasta water and stir to create a silky sauce. Add more pasta water if necessary.

Serve the salad and carbonara together.