Source: Fine Cooking #121 (also at FineCooking.com)
When I saw this recipe in the latest issue of Fine Cooking, I was quite intrigued. It’s a modern play on the traditional Italian pasta carbonara. It uses roughly the same ingredients but the outcome is radically different. The traditional guanciale (cured pig cheek) is replaced by bacon, the spaghetti replaced by penne (although I used rigatoni), and instead of using egg to create a sauce, it’s used to bind the pasta into a frittata.
The result was surprisingly delicious. The simple ingredients allow all the subtle flavours to come through (so the recipe is still very Italian in that sense). Serve alongside a fresh salad or other bright vegetable that will complement the warm flavours of the frittata (I sautéed some Brussels sprouts).
Great weekend lunch or brunch… and makes lots of leftovers that will warm up quite nicely in the microwave.