Now, I’ll be the first to admit – I am not Italian.
But I do love Italian food. I’ve also watched enough Genaldo Contaldo, Mario Batali, and Lydia Bastianich to earn an honorary Italian residency. Also, if you don’t know who those people are – shame on you. Shame.
Now while my Italian street cred may be pending, my love for fine tuning delicious pasta certainly is not. This fusion of classic Italian and Filipino food, Longaniza Carbonara, was borne out of a desire to eat Italian but without the ingredients to honour it in its authenticity. The fantastic thing about this recipe is that it’s really easy to put together and still tastes like it took you hours to make.
Ingredients
serves 2-3
• spaghetti
• 1 package of longaniza
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4-5 sliced cloves of garlic
• pinch of dried chilli (again, not so classic, but oh well)
Method
- Release the longaniza from their casing and form the meat into meatballs
– this method also works with basically any uncooked sausage you can get your hands on - Using a preheated pan over medium-low heat, fry each meatball until crisp and cooked through
– the sugar in the longaniza sausage will burn relatively quickly, so it’s important not to cook sausage on too high of a heat - While sausage meatballs are crisping, mix together your eggs, Parmesan, salt and pepper in a bowl
- Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente
– most packages say 7-8 mins, I like to shoot for 6 1/2 mins. If the water is boiling hard, they come out perfect almost every time! - When meatballs are throughly cooked and crispy, remove from pan and replace with garlic cloves
– if you notice pan has too much caramelization, reserve all the fat, wash out pan, then add sausage fat and garlic back to pane - Once garlic is crisped and fragrant, take off heat and add cooked spaghetti. Coat spaghetti with garlic and oil.
- Once pan is no longer scalding hot, add egg mixture vigorously stirring the entire time to avoid them scrambling on the bottom of the pan
– sometimes, you see recipes include cream to help the eggs not coagulate so quickly. But as far as I know, Italians won’t have that kind of nonsense. All that said, if you’re not confident in your stirring capabilities, add a splash of cream to give you a little extra creaminess and a bit of aid in the scrambled egg prevention. - Add your longaniza meatballs back to the spaghetti mixture, and top off with a little chilli flakes for added heat
It’s really that easy! Creamy, spicy, sweet, and oh so satisfying. While the recipe is relatively straightforward, there are definitely a few things you should look out for.
Filipino Carbonara 101 – Some Things to Look Out For
The Dreaded RAW EGG
The residual heat from the spaghetti will cook your eggs through, so timing is sort of key for this one. If your spaghetti sits out for too long, it’ll not only be goopy, but it won’t cook those noodles. If you’re not sure, add your spaghetti mixture back to the pan on low heat. WARNING: this could scramble some of the eggs so you have to be careful!
Spaghetti to Sauce Ratio
I’ll be the first to admit, I haven’t really nailed this one yet. I’m still learning how not to over-estimate pasta portions, so try to make a quarter sized circle using your forefinger and thumb. This is apparently the “perfect portion of pasta for one person”. Fit as much spaghetti into that quarter sized hole, and voila!
Burning the Sugars in the Longaniza
If you have the pan on too high of a heat, that could possibly mean the death of whatever sauce you want to add the pasta too afterwards. The sugars will caramelize and burn to the bottom of the pan, giving your carbonara a burnt flavour. To mitigate this problem, use a low-medium heat when cooking your meatballs. Or cook the longaniza however you want to, cook the garlic in the oil, reserve the oil and garlic, and wash out the pan.
thecultureofcookery.com 