Carbonara di zucchine

A luscious and surprisingly light veggie alternative

Anyone who is familiar with me and my recipes will know that a classic, proper, Roman-style carbonara is my favourite pasta dish of them all. And while the peppery, salty flavours and crisp guanciale are deeply beloved, for me it’s the sauce that truly makes the dish. And the reason is simple - I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I love emulsions.

That’s really all the sauce is, an emulsion. No cream required! Just eggs, pecorino Romano and my trick; a splash of starchy pasta water to stabilise so you don’t end up with a messy scramble. When done correctly, these fats and water combine to create the most silky, luscious sauce that is so creamy, so delectable, that you will want to revisit it over and over again.

There’s just something about two ingredients that do not typically mix, being brought together and manipulated in a way that forces them to combine in the most spectacular fashion. What does mayonnaise, vinaigrette and beurre monte have in common? They’re all emulsions with icon status. And we are adding carbonara to the list my friends!!

So today we’re revisiting the classic carbonara and switching it up a bit to create an arguably lighter and coincidentally, vegetarian version - enter zucchini. It is no secret that I am sucker for zucchini pasta, in fact this dish rivals carbonara’s position as top of my personal food pyramid.

I love how you can create wonderful texture simply by prepping the zucchini in a couple of different ways, and zucchini’s ability to melt into a sauce is really quite lovely. It is no different here, with the zucchini working in total harmony with our lovely egg and pecorino sauce. Honestly, chef’s kiss!

When testing this recipe I steered away from my usual carbonara base to create a slightly lighter sauce. There are two main schools of thought with carbonara and that’s a thick and cream-like sauce, versus a lighter, thinner glossy coating. Usually I am an advocate for the former, but in this version the extra egg yolks and lighter application really makes sense.

Anywho - that’s enough yapping from me, I’m sure you want to get onto the recipe so find that plus some notes on pasta below.

The importance of the *right* pasta for a dish like this

OK so clearly, I’m an enthusiast. I do like to get a bit nerdy when it comes to pasta and sauce pairings and there is a good reason why carbonara is better off made with a store-bought, dried pasta.