This is the first official week of our family's Chopped challenge. And, I must say, it was a very successful week. According to Benjamin, both recipes are "keepers."
I made Rigatoni Carbonara and Sweet Potato Rolls. The carbonara recipe specified an Italian cured ham called pancetta. But, after much searching on the internet, I learned that people often make carbonara with bacon so I decided that bacon was a reasonable substitution. The sweet potato rolls called for pureed sweet potato. But, given I had to use an actual sweet potato, I had to bake the sweet potato and then puree it in the blender with a little added water to form the right consistency. So, I had my plan in place. Now it was time to actually make the food.
I started with the rolls. They were super easy to make and essentially like any other yeast roll. They raised nicely and baked quickly. They got a little browner than I might have liked, but they were not overdone on the inside and actually a perfect texture.
This shape of roll is great because you can just split it down the middle and add butter. Super easy to eat - even my kids can split and butter their own rolls (well, at least the older two).
Next was the carbonara. It was a bit more involved. I learned from watching "Worst Cooks in America" on Food Network that it's important to have all your ingredients ready at the start of the cooking process. I believe Chef Anne Burrell calls this "mise en place". Yes, I'm using my kids' snack bowls.
Since I'm using bacon instead of pancetta, I decided to remove excess fat from the bacon and work just with the meat portion of the bacon. Yes, that eliminated most of the bacon! But, I just needed 1/3 pound of meat so I figured that if I trimmed the fat from a pound of bacon, I'd be left with about 1/3 pound of meat. Seemed to work... I next had to saute it in a drizzle of olive oil.
I quickly learned that this pan was not going to be big enough! Towards the end of the cooking process, I was going to have to combine the bacon mixture with the rigatoni pasta. So, I needed my BIG pan. This pan looks huge, and it is. But, you would be surprised how much I use it. And, with three boys, I'm sure it will get used more and more as their appetites increase exponentially with their age.
I'm almost there!! So, I decided to bring in my sous chef (Benjamin) to make some salads to go with dinner. Look at him peel those carrots! It's a Food Network peeler and its so easy to use. Just be careful as it's also super sharp.
I next combined the egg yolk with parmesan cheese and fresh parsley to make the sauce. In order to ensure the egg yolks are cooked sufficiently, boiling water from the pasta is added to the sauce. Cool idea! Once the sauce was ready and the pasta cooked al dente, I combined everything in my big skillet.
I just had to sample it and it was so good!! Seriously, I didn't think I was capable of preparing something this yummy. Here's my first Chopped meal...
With the exception of the snowman plate that I really need to store away until next winter, it looks pretty good. We essentially had no leftovers of the pasta, but we had enough rolls to freeze for another meal. Benjamin had three servings of pasta.
Next week's mystery ingredients: Kielbasa and Cream Cheese. I've never eaten kielbasa and I'm not a fan of cream cheese. But, I do have an idea for the meal.
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