Semi-Failed Carbonara

Two months ago some friends and I had dinner at a new casual dinning restaurant in Union Square called Vapiano. I was in awe as soon as I stepped through the door. The venue is a seat yourself establishment with stations for ordering your meal. They have separate sections of the kitchen for salad, sandwiches, pizza and pasta. It is almost fast-food, but much more fresh!

With so many noodle and sauce options, I had trouble selecting a dish but went with Campanelle Carbonara. Believe it or not, I never had carbonara before this night which is seriously weird since I love making sauce out of butter, heavy cream and cheese. Needless to say, this meal was AMAZING!! And I was thrilled to watch the chef make my sauce from scratch. How fun!

So...the point of this post is to touch on my replication of the sauce which was not so successful. When I started making the dish, it took me far too long to chop the bacon and shallots, which left me focused on that, while ignoring my noodles. I ended up having to toss a batch of noodles because they were pure mush! THEN when I got things in order, I sort of burnt the butter, bacon and shallots. Oops! I can't win em all. This definitely didn't taste like Vapiano's, but was still tasty! Plus, I'm sure if you follow the directions better than I, it will turn out perfect! ;)


Recipe:
6 bacon slices, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 shallots, diced
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
12 oz of your favorite noodle (I went with elbow)

Directions:
1) Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute shallots until softened. Stir in bacon, and cook until bacon is evenly browned. Stir in garlic when bacon is about half done. Remove from heat.
2) Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain pasta, then return it to the pot.
3) In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, cream, and shredded Parmesan. Pour the bacon mixture over the pasta, then stir in the cream mixture. Season with salt and pepper.

Recipe adapted from All Recipes