Please note: the prize draw is now closed.
This month’s Silver Travel Cook Club we’re all about Italy, with a fantastic offer on a tasty trip to Southern Italy with sponsor Cosmos, a recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara and the chance to win the recipe book My Kitchen Table: 100 Pasta Dishes by legendary chef Antonio Carluccio. He was called “the godfather of Italian gastronomy”, with a career of more than 50 years, including BBC TV shows.
Save 10% on a tasty trip to southern Italy with Cosmos
Experience culinary favourites on this tour in Apulia, the heel of Italy. This 8-day tour begins and ends in Naples, but you’ll spend nights in Bari, Lecce and Fasano. Enjoy included Cosmos excursions and take in the views along the enchanting coastline. You’ll have the chance to learn about regional specialities on your visit to a Primitivo wine cellar in Manduria and an olive oil tasting session in the countryside. Make sure you try a local Napoli pizza and a freshly brewed espresso before you leave!
Recipe: Spaghetti Carbonara
Ingredients:
- 100g pancetta
- 50g pecorino cheese
- 50g parmesan
- 3 large eggs
- 350g spaghetti
- 2 plump garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
- 50g unsalted butter
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
- Put a large saucepan of water on to boil.
- Finely chop the 100g pancetta, having first removed any rind. Finely grate 50g pecorino cheese and 50g parmesan and mix them together.
- Beat the 3 large eggs in a medium bowl and season with a little freshly grated black pepper. Set everything aside.
- Add 1 tsp salt to the boiling water, add 350g spaghetti and when the water comes back to the boil, cook at a constant simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until al dente (just cooked).
- Squash 2 peeled plump garlic cloves with the blade of a knife, just to bruise it.
- While the spaghetti is cooking, fry the pancetta with the garlic. Drop 50g unsalted butter into a large frying pan or wok and, as soon as the butter has melted, tip in the pancetta and garlic.
- Leave to cook on a medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until the pancetta is golden and crisp. The garlic has now imparted its flavour, so take it out with a slotted spoon and discard.
- Keep the heat under the pancetta on low. When the pasta is ready, lift it from the water with a pasta fork or tongs and put it in the frying pan with the pancetta. Don’t worry if a little water drops in the pan as well (you want this to happen) and don’t throw the pasta.
- Mix most of the cheese in with the eggs, keeping a small handful back for sprinkling over later.
- Take the pan of spaghetti and pancetta off the heat. Now quickly pour in the eggs and cheese. Using the tongs or a long fork, lift up the spaghetti so it mixes easily with the egg mixture, which thickens but doesn’t scramble, and everything is coated.
- Add extra pasta cooking water to keep it saucy (several tablespoons should do it). You don’t want it wet, just moist. Season with a little salt, if needed.
- Use a long-pronged fork to twist the pasta on to the serving plate or bowl. Serve immediately with a little sprinkling of the remaining cheese and a grating of black pepper. If the dish does get a little dry before serving, splash in some more hot pasta water and the glossy sauciness will be revived.
How to win a copy of My Kitchen Table: 100 Pasta Dishes by Antonio Carluccio
We all have a favourite recipe our mothers used to make.
Comment below to tell us about your favourite family recipe!
A winner will be chosen in early November 2022.
The competition closes on 31 October 2022.
53 Responses
It’s got to be caponata or anything in the fridge to make antipasto.
My mum used to make a store cupboard fried rice which I loved! It was a small tin of spam diced and fried, 1 or 2 eggs whisked together and fried to make an omelette, then chopped, some cooked rice and a tin of mixed vegetables, drained. Fry the whole lot together and add some soy sauce, a dash of ketchup and a dash of oyster sauce if you have it.
Spaghetti bolognese topped with Parmesan is our firm family favourite dish
Our family recipe
Put a banana into a Chicken breast
Cover with bacon
Cook in the Oven
Enjoy
Love him
My husband cooks so many wonderful meals that I am quite spoiled. My favourite had got to be a bacon, egg and avocado saladsalad made of crispy lettuce, cucumber and chopped celery, topped with crispy bacon pieces, quartered avocados and hard boiled eggs. A lovely recipe especially for a summers day eaten outside and enjoyed with a crisp white wine.
Chicken pasta bake
tuna pasta is our family favourite, or should I call it Spaghetti con tonno? Buon appetito!
A bit boring but baked potatoes with a wide varieties of toppings.
A nice pasta allá vongole is my favourite. Lovely simple dish with clams and linguine or spaghetti
Chicken fricasee in a creamy onion sauce
Mum’s meat and potato pie with Henderson relish, absolutely gorgeous! Thanks Mum!!
Salmon pasta is our favourite
Our favourite recipe is actually one of Antonio’s – it’s a carb fest of pasta, beans & potato with bacon tomatoes & chilli which is far nicer than it sounds. Unfortunately we’ve been on a low carb diet for a while so have missed it – it will be the first one we cook once we’ve reached our target weights!
Our lunchtime fave – which came from my wife’s family – is nicknamed ‘Sick on Toast’ and whilst the title sounds horrible it is actually delicious. Basically it’s a mixture of egg, milk, cheese (a strong cheddar is our favourite) and tomatoes all heated together until the tomatoes can by worked out of their skins, season well, toast some bread (preferably thick) and then pour the mixture over the toast. And scrumptious, I’m hungry now just writing about it!
Macaroni Cheese, pure comfort food.
Discovered salmon baked on a bed of leeks drizzled with lemon juice/olive oil/ginger/garlic marinade – used our own grown lemons!
My favourite is penne pasta with crispy Parma ham, chestnut mushrooms, creme fraiche and parmesan.
funnily enough ours was Spaghetti Carbonara but made with ham from a ham hock
Thank you for the chance to win a copy of the lovely book.
Tin of baked beans and cooked pasta, simple and yet so nice
Roast Chicken Sunday dinner, then other days with
Homemade chicken soup
Homemade chicken pie.
Spaghetti Carbonara, my all time favourite, simple and easy to make
Cheese Potato, a simple dish of mash mixed with and also topped with an enormous quantity of tasty cheese and a handful of tomatoes. The ultimate comfort food in the form of warming fatty carbs.
We enjoy cheese on toast,with poached egg on top. Plain and simple.
Pasta is a mystery to me but I love eating it. My grandsons eat a variety of pastas every night for tea. I would love to win this book.
Spicy lobster sauce pasta!
Bacon ,onion and potato pie.
Growing up on a Yorkshire farm, Tuesday dinner (at 12pm) was always shepherd’s pie made from the left-over Sunday roast beef, which had been eaten cold on Monday. Depending on the remaining volume of meat, vegetables were added to bulk it out. Shepherd’s pie is still one of my favourite family dishes especially at this time of year and is the dish I most yearn for when on holiday. Note – I know that shepherd’s pie is traditionally made with lamb’s mince, and cottage pie with beef mince, but we always called it shepherd’s pie, and I still do!
Yes, like Helen we always had roast Sunday, cold Monday (washing day) and shepherds or cottage pie on Tuesday; this was in the 1950s when we were really hard up; we filled up on vegetables from the garden. However, my favourite meal was stuffed braised lambs hearts. Do I hear a collective `yuk` from around the country? Absolutely delicious, the valves and fatty bits removed, stuffed in those days with Paxo stuffing and slow cooked in stock or gravy. I’ve continued to cook and enjoy them throughout my married life. But my husband cooks a lot of different pasta recipes and is a fan of Carluccio’s book `A Passion for Mushrooms`. Once again money is tight and we rarely have a joint on Sunday.
It has to be Aroncini as it brings back memories of my son’s wedding.
Just finished an Aperol spritz on a warm summer evening. Reminiscent of Florence in 2018. Love regional Italian cooking, best meal ever at newly opened restaurant near Duomo that featured seasonal produce traditional family recipes from each sub-region of Tuscany on its menu. Lots of “nonnas” were tapped into for this. Gelato became a recognised food group …. lunch “sorted”. We tried two different scoops every day – 21 in total. Best ever in San Gimignano. More bueno appetito signore!
My husband cooks so many wonderful meals that I am spoilt for choice –
Cheesy, hammy, eggy from our Royal Navy days,
Chicken wings & ribs,
Traditional all day breakfast,
Proper roast dinner,
the list goes on & on ……….
I make a cottage pie that everyone in my family loves – my Mum taught me to make it and it makes me think of her every time I do…
Courgette, red onion and pine nut risotto – a real Italian winter treat.
It has to be a Roast Rib of Beef cooked on the bone and served with all the trimmings of a roast dinner
A simple lasagne is our family’s favourite – good old wholesome, comfort food
Lemon chicken with some light vegetables like you get in Sorrento.
One of my husband’s favourites. Lay six good quality sausages in a dish, cover with sliced potatoes (not too thin). In a bowl mix together a tin of mixed beans in chilli sauce and a tin of Mulligatawny Soup and pour over sausages/potatoes. Cook in the oven on 180 degrees (electric, sorry don’t know equivalent in gas) until tender or you can put this in your slow cooker. Great for cooler nights meal.
Pasta shells, smoked crispy bacon, garden peas & loads of black pepper – simple & delicious
I’m doing Carbonara (from scratch) tonight with Tomato Bruscheta as a starter.
Veg lasagne
Cook some pasta shapes. Fry an onion or two that has been sliced up, add some fresh, chopped tomatoes, garlic, pinch of salt & pepper, chopped bacon. Fry up until cooked. Add the pasta, add some double cream and make sure everything is nice and hot. Can add any herbs as well.
It has to be macaroni in lemon sauce with diced chicken
Lasagne with a hidden layer of chorizo sausage
Our favourite family meal is homemade pizza with a topping of chicken, tomato, peppers and red onions. Lovely!
It looks like pasta is very popular family dish with everyone. I bet every family has their favourite bolognaise recipe ! My mother made endless scones and flapjacks, the latter were always a winner. However, I think our favourite family recipe is actually kedgeree which we’d have for supper as opposed to breakfast with lots of butter and smoked mackeral.
A delicious vegetarian pizza hot and fresh out of the oven
My favourite recipe was my mothers homemade lasagna
try this super simple one – one tin spagetti, one tin chopped tomatoes: fry onions and chopped bacon add the tins, heat, stir done
Salmon Wellington
4 x Salmon fillets, lightly pan fried to seal.
Short crust pastry either home made or from pack, rolled and spread with Salmon patty, one tub of cream cheese (Philadelphia) mixed with 5th salmon fillet.
Salmon fillets on top, and encased in the short crust pastry.
Short crust pastry coated with beaten egg, and placed in oven for 69 minutes, at 170 deg C.
Fantastic.. My mum made, I make, and now my grownup children are making for their partners.
Beef and ale pie cooked in a slow cooker served with cheesy mash and broccoli….delicious flavours on a plate
Our family favourite meal is crispy breaded Peri Peri Chicken with Cheesy Chips and Garlic peas. This goes down well with everyone, every time. But we love pasta meals also!
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