Garlic Chive Carbonara

As in the UK, it’s common in Japan to incorporate ideas and ingredients from around the world into your home cooking. Masahiro Kasahara has based this simple pasta dish on niratama, a classic stir-fry of garlic chives and softly scrambled eggs. The combination of bacon and garlic chives creates a quick, simple and tasty meal.

Photo from The Ultimate Japanese Noodles Cookbook

Read our full review of The Ultimate Japanese Noodles Cookbook by Masahiro Kasahara.

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Garlic Chive Carbonara

I based this carbonara on the classic stir-fried dish called niratama: garlic chives with soft scrambled eggs. The key to a creamy sauce is to mix all the sauce ingredients beforehand, and to turn the heat off immediately after adding them to the pan.

Servings 2

Author Masahiro Kasahara

Ingredients

• 150 to 180 g (5 to 6 oz) spaghetti
• 4 slices bacon
• ⅓ (about 1 oz / 30 g) bundle garlic chives
• Salt
• 1 tablespoon (20 g) butter
• Ground black pepper, to taste

For the sauce

• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons double (heavy) cream
• 1 tablespoon grated cheese

Instructions

• Cut the bacon into ⅓ inch (1 cm) strips. Cut up a little of the garlic chives into 1/6 inch (5 mm) pieces, and the rest into 2 inch (5 cm) pieces. Combine the Sauce ingredients in a bowl.
• Bring plenty of salted water to a boil in a pan. Cook the spaghetti following the directions on the package.
• Heat the butter in a frying pan and stir fry the bacon and the longer pieces of the garlic chives. Drain the spaghetti and add to the pan, mixing rapidly. Add the Sauce ingredients and immediately take the pan off the heat. Toss to keep cooking the Sauce in the residual heat. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt.
• Transfer to serving plates, and sprinkle with the small pieces of garlic chives and the black pepper to serve.

Kavey Eats received a review copy of The Ultimate Japanese Noodles Cookbook by Masahiro Kasahara from Tuttle Publishing. We have permission to republish the recipe.