food comas

Post Easter, I decided it was time to try out some spring pastas (despite the fact Singapore is essentially season-less).  My favorite spring pasta recipe is Pasta with Smoked Salmon & Peas in a Dill Cream Sauce.  I decided to try something a little different and found a recipe for Smoked Salmon Carbonara by BBC Good Food.  I did a small sample size to test out the sauce but found it a bit bland.  I am not a huge fan of heavy, creamy pastas but still felt it needed more of a punch to it.  My chef friend Andrei suggested trying a pasta carbonara recipe by Eric Ripert, the chef of Le Bernardin (which is one of my favorite restaurants in NYC and you can read our blog’s extensive menu coverage here).  I borrowed tidbits from both and the recipe below is what I came up with:

Smoked Salmon Carbonara

Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 8 oz dried linguine or spaghetti
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 C crème fraîche (preferable but cooking cream in Singapore is all I can find… if you find the cream is too heavy, lighten up on the cheese)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 C fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• 120g smoked salmon, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 bunch of chives, thinly sliced

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat with salt.  Cook the pasta in the boiling salted water to al dente. Drain the pasta.

In a small skillet, melt the butter in a small pan, add the garlic and gently sizzle for 1 min.  Add the crème fraîche and bring to a simmer.  Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl.  Whisk the egg yolks into the sauce, half of the Parmesan cheese, and the smoked salmon.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Add the pasta to the sauce and stir in the chives and rest of the Parmesan cheese.  Let everything sit for one minute to properly absorb all of the flavors.  Garnish with extra Parmesan cheese if desired.