Spaghetti carbonara with prawns and coffee
Italy at the table is a real universe to discover, with an endless wealth of flavors, tastes, dishes, wines, unique products and specialties that everyone in the world envies us for.
"Italians have only two things on their minds: the other is spaghetti."– Catherine Deneuve
Pasta is my weakness, my comfort food, my consolation. I like it all, but I have a preference for the dry one. Spaghetti rather than tagliatelle, reginette rather than pappardelle. I like al dente, as they eat it in the South: with that inner thread that has remained white, with a hard heart, which strains the teeth for a second before yielding. I always liked it: when I find good ones, I eat a forkful pulled out of the steaming pot, very naked. Naked will not be this first course, especially if you forget the rather useless idea of foil, which instead characterizes the original recipe.
The recipe, you see, is pretty simple but really nice. I allow myself only small technical variations on the execution more than anything else to adapt it to my taste. Away with the foil, first of all, and then coffee beans pounded in a mortar for marinating the shrimps, instead of leaving them whole. It seems to me that the toasted and warm taste of coffee is perceived more and better married with the creaminess of the egg and the sweetness of the shrimp.
Ingredients
200 g Spaghetti40 g Low-fat yogurt1 mandarin (juice)1 egg Yolk10 prawns50 g pancettaCoffee beans to taste (at least a dozen)Extra virgin olive oilSaltPepper
Guidelines
Shell the shrimp and marinate for an hour in the oil scented with pancetta cut into cubes, but raw - and a few coffee beans (3-4) pounded in a mortar. Prepare in a bain-marie, in a saucepan, a cream with yogurt, egg yolk and Mandarin juice. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Put the cream in a deep pan, which can comfortably contain the spaghetti. After the marinade time, drain the bacon cubes well and put them to brown in a pan, without any kind of oil or butter, over very low heat, almost candlelight. Put a pot of water for the spaghetti on the fire. Salt it when it comes to a boil, throw the spaghetti and cook them ''al dente''. When the spaghetti are at 3/4 of the cooking time, drain them immediately (to give you an example: if on the package it is written that they cook in 9 minutes, remove them at 7) and pour them into the pan that contains the cream, which in the meantime you have heated up: sauté everything for 3 minutes. While the spaghetti are cooking, turn up the heat under the pancetta cubes (which will have become crispy outside, but soft inside) and add the shrimps, marinade oil and a few more coffee beans, this time whole. Sauté over high heat for a couple of minutes. Add the pancetta, the shrimps and the coffee beans to spaghetti, mix for a minute at most and serve the hot pasta.
NotesIf you want to follow the original version, as soon as you have added the shrimp to the spaghetti, enclose everything in an aluminum foil and put in the oven preheated to 200 ° C for 5 minutes. This recipe is easy, but it must be done at least a couple of times to be sure with the doses of the ingredients, especially with coffee.
Italy at the table is a real universe to discover, with an endless wealth of flavors, tastes, dishes, wines, unique products and specialties that everyone in the world envies us for.
"Italians have only two things on their minds: the other is spaghetti."
– Catherine Deneuve
Pasta is my weakness, my comfort food, my consolation. I like it all, but I have a preference for the dry one. Spaghetti rather than tagliatelle, reginette rather than pappardelle. I like al dente, as they eat it in the South: with that inner thread that has remained white, with a hard heart, which strains the teeth for a second before yielding. I always liked it: when I find good ones, I eat a forkful pulled out of the steaming pot, very naked. Naked will not be this first course, especially if you forget the rather useless idea of foil, which instead characterizes the original recipe.
The recipe, you see, is pretty simple but really nice. I allow myself only small technical variations on the execution more than anything else to adapt it to my taste. Away with the foil, first of all, and then coffee beans pounded in a mortar for marinating the shrimps, instead of leaving them whole. It seems to me that the toasted and warm taste of coffee is perceived more and better married with the creaminess of the egg and the sweetness of the shrimp.
Ingredients
200 g Spaghetti
40 g Low-fat yogurt
1 mandarin (juice)
1 egg Yolk
10 prawns
50 g pancetta
Coffee beans to taste (at least a dozen)
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Guidelines
Shell the shrimp and marinate for an hour in the oil scented with pancetta cut into cubes, but raw - and a few coffee beans (3-4) pounded in a mortar. Prepare in a bain-marie, in a saucepan, a cream with yogurt, egg yolk and Mandarin juice. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Put the cream in a deep pan, which can comfortably contain the spaghetti. After the marinade time, drain the bacon cubes well and put them to brown in a pan, without any kind of oil or butter, over very low heat, almost candlelight. Put a pot of water for the spaghetti on the fire. Salt it when it comes to a boil, throw the spaghetti and cook them ''al dente''. When the spaghetti are at 3/4 of the cooking time, drain them immediately (to give you an example: if on the package it is written that they cook in 9 minutes, remove them at 7) and pour them into the pan that contains the cream, which in the meantime you have heated up: sauté everything for 3 minutes. While the spaghetti are cooking, turn up the heat under the pancetta cubes (which will have become crispy outside, but soft inside) and add the shrimps, marinade oil and a few more coffee beans, this time whole. Sauté over high heat for a couple of minutes. Add the pancetta, the shrimps and the coffee beans to spaghetti, mix for a minute at most and serve the hot pasta.
Notes
If you want to follow the original version, as soon as you have added the shrimp to the spaghetti, enclose everything in an aluminum foil and put in the oven preheated to 200 ° C for 5 minutes. This recipe is easy, but it must be done at least a couple of times to be sure with the doses of the ingredients, especially with coffee.
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