Carbonara is one of my go-to meals when I’m at a restaurant. It’s a guaranteed winner if i’m not sure what else to pick!
Going into an Italian restaurant, I already knew what I was going to eat. It was so predictable, that sometimes I wouldn’t even look at the menu! Every single time it would be a Carbonara.
Finding out that I could make my own at home was a game changer for me. It’s now something I have nearly every week!
Which pasta?
So when you’re at a restaurant and order a pasta dish, some places ask you which type of pasta you want. The fact that there are over 300 different pasta shapes can sometimes make that decision a little harder than it’s supposed to be!
Apparently, there is an ‘Italian guide’ for which pasta shape is best suited for which sauces. According to this guide, thinner paster is better suited to a lighter and more delicate sauce, where as a thicker pasta shape is better suited to a heavier or chunky sauce.
The pasta that I used in this recipe was tagliatelle. Maybe not the perfect ‘Italian approved’ pasta for a carbonara, however due to the consistency of the sauce, it worked out really well! Though for future reference, the ‘perfect pasta’ for carbonara is in fact spaghetti!
Vegetarian?
Having a carbonara without bacon just seems wrong. It’s a good thing that you can be vegetarian and get just about any meat substitute at the supermarket!
You can use the Quorn bacon in this. I did however get caught short one week, as I didn’t realise that although the bacon above is syn free, that Quorn do another bacon substitute which is not!
Initially, I thought that surely there can’t be much difference between the two? They’re both made by the same company, and are both bacon substitutes? Wrong.
So what is the difference then? After researching, it turns out that the bacon slices contained 28% less Mycroprotein than the other vegetarian bacon. It also contains glycerol as a humectant (preserver). I talk about Mycroprotein in my ‘Chicken’ Fried Rice recipe.
Does it make that much difference?
In short, yes. In regards to calories, the bacon slices contain 214 calories per 100g, where as the syn free bacon only contains 128 calories per 100g! If you’re concerned about saturated fat, the bacon slices contain 1.1g of saturated fat in 100g, where as the other only has 0.5g. As I use 2 slices in this recipe, there is only 38 calories and 0.2g of saturated fat!
More pasta recipes:
If you decide to make this delicious recipe, be sure to leave a comment below! Why not tag a snap and tag me on Instagram? I’d love to see! @thesliceofjess
*Calorific value may change depending on which brand you use for each item!*
Details
1 serving
10 minutes
20 minutes
Carbonara – 545<br>Garlic Bread – 236
Print
Ingredients
- For the carbonara:
70g Pasta – any shape
2 slices of bacon, visible fat removed
4 Light cheese triangles
500ml Vegetable stock
Low calorie spray oil
Leafy salad of choice
- For the garlic bread:
Warburton’s seeded bagel thin
Garlic seasoning
1tsp lazy garlic
Low calorie spray oil
Directions
- Preheat your grill.
- Boil your tagliatelle in the vegetable stock for about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, spray a pan with your spray oil and cook your bacon.
- For the garlic bread, spray sparingly with spray oil. Spread the lazy garlic on the bagel thin to make a thin layer. Add garlic seasoning on top and put under the grill for about 10 minutes, until the bagel goes crispy.
- Once your pasta is cooked, take about 100ml of the water from the pan and keep it. Drain the rest away.
- Add the cheese triangles and water to the pasta and mix until melted.
- Chop up your bacon and add it to the pasta.
- Season with salt and pepper if you wish and serve with some leafy greens.
Last updated: 20th October 2021
