Vegetarian Spaghetti Carbonara

Thanks to meat-free bacon and other replacements, classic meat recipe favorites can come back to the table with a veggie vengeance. Lots of my readers are trying to eat less meat but still want to enjoy some of their favorite dishes, like a great carbonara sauce. This recipe lets you do just that and it will satisfy anyone of the vegetarian or omnivorous persuasion. The MorningStar brand veggie bacon strips are a great substitute for meat. Other than the bacon replacement, this recipe contains all of the usual ingredients of a great carbonara dish such as fresh herbs, garlic, and egg yolks. Also, the aromatic smell of rosemary-garlic oil that will take over your kitchen is quite a bonus.I made this dish on Christmas day on the good old isle of Staten amongst skeptical family members who consider French fries to be a vegetable and make my vegetarianism the butt of a joke that never gets old. I am a good sport though, but mainly because I want to convince my loved ones that maintaining a plant-based diet is health-supportive AND delicious. This meal is not one of my healthiest, but I throw in some lacinato kale because I love to have some greens in my dishes. My family ended up loving my version of carbonara and they already requested that I make it again the next time we all see each other!

This dish really takes no time to make and I even ate it for breakfast the next morning because it’s actually like eating breakfast since it has “bacon” and eggs! I throw some tiny chopped up pieces of the veggie bacon in with the olive oil to start this dish, along with the garlic and rosemary, all while my pasta is cooking in the boiling pot of water. Carbonara is a Roman dish, so I usually use a blend of Pecorino Romano & Parmesan cheeses at the end. I also add nice grassy parsley at the end because it breaks up the salt a little bit, so I throw in a generous handful. The eggs in this dish are also very important.Tip: This dish calls for egg yolks, so I put the egg whites into a little plastic baggy and eat them for breakfast the next morning so that they don't go to waste!

'The most important trick to make a carbonara is to temper the egg yolks. This is why I reserve some of my magic cooking liquid, around 1/2-1 cup of the starchy pasta water, and I take it over to my egg bowl. While I am whisking or stirring the eggs with a fork or a whisk, I slowly add the pasta water into the eggs and I keep mixing. If you don't take the time to do this, all you will end up with is scrambled eggs... with spaghetti... and little bits of chopped up veggie bacon.

For the brightest color, I use farm-fresh eggs, which are widely available at Whole Foods and farmer’s markets. The hens that lay them are often fed marigolds which make the egg yolks intensely bright yellow-orange. Many recipes for carbonara include cream—I never add cream. The creamy quality of the sauce should come from the tempered eggs emulsifying with the cheeses and pasta.

Another important tip for carbonara is that you want to cook your spaghetti al dente... you want it to be a minute away from being perfect because you have to drain it and then add all of the pasta to the pan with the sauce so that it will continue to cook. That process is called "carry-over cooking." Then, you add all of the sauce to the pan and mix that up so that it turns into a slippery system for the garlic, olive oil, rosemary and bacon to combine all together. Let me tell you, the smell at that point is pretty heavenly!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Make the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure that the spaghetti will be hot and ready when the sauce is finished; it is very important that the pasta is hot when adding the egg mixture so that the heat of the pasta cooks the raw eggs in the sauce.

Vegetarian Spaghetti Carbonara

Author: Michele Wolfson

Ingredients

• 2 TBS olive oil

• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

• 6 strips soy bacon, cut into "bits"

• 1 TBS fresh rosemary, chopped

• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

• 1 cup lacinato kale, stemmed and chopped

• 1/2 cup dry white wine

• 3 egg yolks

• 1/2 cup parmesan or pecorino cheese

• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

• 1 lb pasta

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil for pasta.

2. Heat olive oil, 3 turns of the pan, in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add veggie bacon, garlic, rosemary, and some red pepper, and stir 2 minutes more. Next, add the kale and cook that down for 1 minute.

3. Add wine and reduce heat to low. In a separate bowl, whisk up egg yolks and season with salt and pepper.

4. Add pasta to salted boiling water and cook to al dente.

5. Whisk 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to egg yolks in a slow stream to temper them. Reserve an extra half-cup starchy water in case the pasta gets too tight when you toss it. Drain pasta and add to the pan with veggie bacon and garlic.

6. Remove from heat and toss with egg yolks and grated cheeses as well as parsley, adjust salt and pepper to taste.