Thursday, March 27, 2014

FFwD: Recipe-Swap Onion "Carbonara"

I was supposed to cook Vegetable Barley Soup with the Taste of Little India for this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe. For no good reason other than that I'd already made a big pot of soup this week, I decided to hold off on this recipe and make up one that I'd missed.

For some reason, I didn't expect much from Recipe-Swap Onion "Carbonara." To start with, steamed onions? Ew. Spaghetti alla Carbonara is one of the meals that I can always get Charlie to eat, and it's one of our standby restaurant orders for him. As such, I've tasted some excellent carbonaras, and a lot of mediocre/terrible versions. The worst are soupy and bland. Okay, that's not totally true. The VERY worst actually had curds stuck to the pasta. Cooked egg? Bad cream? I don't know. Gross. Charlie ate it anyway. I envisioned Dorie's version to be on the soupy/bland side. I was wrong.

I ripped up a rotisserie chicken and threw it into the pan with a pound of steamed onions, to make it a one-pot meal. I also transferred a bit of bacon grease over from the pan I'd cooked the bacon in, because bacon flavor is more than half of the appeal of carbonara. Am I right? Of course I am. I did need to add a little extra cream, because the chicken bulked things up farther than the sauce would spread. I used Italian panna da cucina. They have different kinds of cream here. I never know what I'm buying. This stuff is practically solid. It's awesome. It helped reduce the soupy factor.
I was also wrong for wrinkling my nose at steamed onions. Much to my surprise, they turned out to be sweet, and a nice texture.

This was a delicious meal. No pasta necessary.

Conclusion: Loved it.

11 comments:

  1. I was surprised at this one as well (I didn't have any, but my fussy man really liked it).

    I don't think you missed too much with the soup :-)

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  2. So glad this was a hit...Dorie sometimes surprises us, doesn't she??? Enjoy your weekend!

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  3. Looks good. I enjoyed this too!

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  4. On my list to make up as well. When I look at it I keep passing it by not expecting much from it but your post will have me reconsider the next time I am in make up mode.

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  5. We really loved this one when we made it. Totally surprised us. Have a great weekend.

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  6. Glad you enjoyed this one - I was pleasantly surprised by it too, as "steamed onions" do not conjure up visions of deliciousness.

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  7. I found this really interesting. I never thought of onions as a pasta substitute but it works.

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  8. I agree with Charlie that Pasta Carbonara rocks. I love your idea to add chicken to make this a meal. I'll try that some time. I remember this one being surprisingly good.

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  9. I remember liking this one. Glad you enjoyed it!

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  10. I loved, loved, loved this recipe and was, like you, totally surprise. Although I must have been channeling Charlie when I made it (love that little guy with his antics) because I did plop Dorie's faux recipe on top of pasta. Ohhhh, it was good. When Charlie is needing a fix, try it. Tell him that right now one of your Mommy's friends, who is in California, is headed out to a cliff on the Pacific Ocean beach to watch the Mama Gray whales migrate with their babies back up to the Bering Sea.

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  11. This one was a hit for us, too - loved that it's naturally gluten-free and the onions are truly fantastic. We enjoyed the soup, but subbed quinoa for the barley - that made it a complete meal.

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