Sunday night comfort food: Spaghetti Carbonara

I've recently committed myself to improving my diet and exercising more, which so far has been working out pretty well (despite the fact that I was feeling the burn after a fairly easy 2-mile run with Molly this morning). However, Sunday nights -- and the weekend in general -- are usually an excuse to fall off the wagon, so I've stuck with hearty and satisfying recipes for Sunday night comfort food dinners. After all, diet starts Monday, right?

This week I decided to make a recipe that Kim sent me a while back -- Tyler Florence's Spaghetti alla Carbonara. Ingredients-wise, I followed the recipe exactly. However, on Kim's suggestion, part of the process was altered in order to account for the egg -- the very essence of a carbonara -- and to prevent the possibility of the dish turning into scrambled egg pasta.

Basically, it went like this: Set up your pot of boiling water for the pasta. As you're waiting for it to heat up, cook the bacon til it's crisp, then add the garlic and set it aside (off the heat). Meanwhile, once the pasta is in the pot, set up the egg mixture -- 2 beaten eggs mixed with the parmesan cheese. Once the pasta is cooked, add it to the bacon mixture and mix well.  Finally, add the egg slurry to the pasta.  By now, the food will still be hot, but the pan itself should have cooled enough so that the egg won't scramble.

Finally, season with salt and black pepper and garnish with fresh parsley.  While the process/timing initially intimidated me (after all, Tyler calls this an "intermediate" recipe! Haha), this was actually an easy meal to prepare. It was my first stab at carbonara and I'll definitely be making this again!

More images on Flickr.

Sunday night comfort food: Chicken Parmesan

On Sundays, since I have a few extra hours to think about dinner, I almost always like to make a homecooked dinner and my mind usually strays to comfort food.

This week I decided to return to an old favorite - Chicken Parmesan. I'd prepared this before, but served it on Italian sub rolls to make it into a hearty sandwich.  Tonight, I altered my recipe slightly, drawing from what I had available and what I'd read from a number of recipes.  I also served the chicken over angel hair pasta instead doing the carb-heavier sub roll.

The main difference in preparation was my use of panko breadcrumbs instead of traditional breadcrumbs. Panko, simply a Japanese breadcrumb, serves the same purpose as your everyday breadcrumb, but is lighter, flakier, and makes whatever you're cooking more crispy and textured. I happened to have a leftover batch of seasoned panko breadcrumbs from a previous recipe I made. The preparation was as follows:

In a small pan, melt 2 T butter over medium heat until foamed. Add in leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme, 1 T Dijon mustard, and 1 T finely chopped parsley. Remove from heat and whisk vigorously. Add in breadcrumbs, toss to combine, and set aside.

I threw in some oregano just to add some Italian flavor and that was about all the seasoning I needed. The closest overall recipe to match what I prepared is probably Bobby Flay's - he keeps it very simple and straightforward, and also uses panko.

While this dish involves lots of steps (and plates/bowls/cooking space), it's only comprised of a handful of basic ingredients which makes it an easy meal to prepare. Also, there's a ton of flexibility with how you prepare the dish and what you want to add. Tonight, the only thing I had to get from the store was the chicken breast cutlets; everything else I already had in my kitchen (yes, it was lucky that I already had mozzarella cheese and fresh parsley sitting around). Paired with a glass of wine, this is a perfect Sunday evening meal that leaves you with leftovers for the coming week!

More images/preparation details on Flickr.