Quick Healthy Pasta Carbonara Recipe

Guest Author - Cynthia Kilmartin

OK – I am not sure you can put 'pasta carbonara' and 'healthy' into the same sentence, but lets say 'healthier' pasta carbonara than what you would normally order in a restaurant... without compromising on flavour.

You are probably used to a classic carbonara recipe with bacon, parmesan and cream. This carbonara recipe uses evaporated milk instead of cream, greatly reducing the calories and fat content but retaining the creamy flavour. You can even use the 'light' evaporated milk reducing the calories even further. Make sure you choose an evaporated milk that has no added sugar.

Ingredients

• dried or fresh pasta of your choice (see tips for amount)
  
• a 14oz can of evaporated milk
  
• 2 egg yolks
  
• a pinch of cayenne pepper
  
• ½ cup of smoked ham chopped
  
• ½ a small onion chopped
  
• handful of fresh spinach shredded
  
• ½ small zuccini grated or chopped quite small
  
• 1 cup button mushrooms sliced
  
• 1-2 cloves of garlic crushed
  
• 1 cup of grated cheese of your choice
  
• spray oil for frying

Method

1. cook your pasta in a pot of boiling water as per the instructions on the pack
   
2. spray your pan and lightly fry your onion, garlic and mushrooms until the onion is translucent
   
3. add the ham and zucchini and warm through
   
4. in a cold sauce pan whisk the egg yolks into the evaporated milk, heat gently stirring.
   
5. remove from the heat as soon as the sauce starts to thicken, you don't want scrambled eggs!
   
6. add your spinach and the ingredients from the pan and half the cheese, stir
   
7. when the pasta is done, drain and add to your sauce
   
8. serve with the remaning grated cheese sprinkled over the top

Tips

Isn't it always hard to determine how much pasta to cook for your family? Particularly as it can depend on how hungry they are or what kind of sauce you are using. As a general guide, use 3-4oz of dried pasta per person and 4-5oz of fresh pasta per person. I have used trial and error for my family and keep a 'pasta cup' so I generally know how many cups I use with different types of pasta.

for the cheese I usually use cheddar however you can use any other good melting cheese, I also sometimes use two different cheeses eg cheddar for the sauce and sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top.

it doesn't matter how you chop the ham, sliced or chunks or even use bacon or pancetta. Ham is the lowest in calories.