Thursday night quickie: Carbonara

I'm sure we've all had a craving that just won't be shaken. For me it's been spaghetti carbonara this week. It came to me on Monday and the smokey, salty flavours just whirled around my head till the end of the week.

So yesterday I said enough was enough and carbonara for dinner it was! The great thing about it is that it's one of the quicker pasta dishes, but there is the trick of not making scrambled eggs.

Super simple boil spaghetti as normal, while that's on the go fry pancetta or smoked streaky bacon till crispy and set aside on paper towel.Then mix eggs, double cream with grated pecorino chopped chives and parsley olive oil salt and pepper.

When the pasta is done with super quick hand motion place in a bowl and stir in the egg mix, quick as you can. Or else you'll end up with a breakfast pasta spaghetti ala scrambled egg, bacon and cheese.

We served it up with a green salad and heat& eat olive loaf, totally satisfying! I love the salty smokey-ness of the cheese and bacon just cut by freshness of dill and parsley. One of my favourite favourites. And it tastes good reheated for lunch the day after.

Maybe next Thursday's quickie will be spaghetti Puttanesca (literally means whore's style spaghetti in Italian) wink

Must have: Onion Marmalade

This weekend I realised, after running out of it, that Onion marmalade has become one of the most used and loved item in our pantry. Why you ask? It has that balance of flavour that  we all crave; the savoury, sweet deep caramelised onion flavour.

http://www.woolworths.co.za/store/browse/product.jsp?productId=20177096

Although it's exterior probably does not look as appealing, as it is to a foodie like myself who likes all things preserve, it is a gem in the kitchen.

1. Great accompaniment for beef, lamb and pork
2. Uplifts most left overs, especially roast beef sandwiches with rocket and tomato
3. Cheese accompaniment, camembert or brie and even a cheddar
4. Adds a depth of sweetness to salad dressings - olive oil, balsamic, mustard, salt, pepper and teaspoon of onion marmalade
5. Topping cheese tartlets

Do yourself a favour and get some onion marmalade, it's stocked at your nearest Woolies

What's for dinner? Ramen tonight but NEVER AGAIN from Ramen Braamfontein

It's official, well been official, Jozi has a dedicated Ramen eatery, Ramen in Juta str Braamfontein. Tonight as a pick me up I'll be grabbing myself a bowl of ramen and knowing me probably a little something more to go with it.

www.ramen.co.za

No what is also official is that Ramen doesn't have a clue of what Ramen is! Firstly, the ramen options were only vegetable or chicken. The broth tasted like tomato paste mixed with some hot water.No soya, or miso options, no nori, no spring onions. Which to me means no ramen!

The dish they served was ramen blasphemy!