Peas have been our absolute favourite veggie so far this year! This is for a couple of reasons. First, it was one of the first veggies to be ready for harvest in our garden and second, because our 1.5 year old daughter loves them and runs to the garden yelling "PEAS!". So, we try to include them in most meals because she loves them so much!
Rewind to a month or so ago, we got our hands on a big piece of pork belly! We thought, why not try and make our own bacon from scratch? We followed this recipe and used our Traegar grill to make it. It actually turned out a little more salty than we would have liked, so we froze it, intending to use it for other recipes.
When our peas started coming into season and I was looking for yet another meal to incorporate peas into, I thought - what about a pasta dish? My husband loves carbonara, we have chickens laying tasty eggs, and we could use that bacon we smoked and froze!
This dish can be made with 100% local ingredients, which is really exciting. It also whips up in about 15-20 minutes (unless you decide to smoke your own bacon, then add about 10 days... so 10 days, 15 minutes haha), and it tastes freaking amazing!
Did you know you can buy fresh pasta locally? Le Caveau, the restaurant at Grand Pre Wines, offers it weekly here.
Or, if you'd like to tack on another hour or two to this recipe (so... 10 days, 2 hours, and 15 minutes), you can make your own pasta! Check out the recipe for making fun pasta shapes and colours here.
Whether you want to spend 10+ days on this recipe, or whip it up in 15 minutes, get the details in the recipe below!
Recipe
Click on the links below to explore the local ingredients available for this recipe
15 minutes | serves 2
1/2 lb of fresh bacon
1/2 lb or 8 oz of pasta
1 cup of peas
1 egg, whipped
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, grated
Salt & pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to instructions. Add fresh peas 3/4 of the way through cooking. Save 1-1.5 cup of the pasta water for the sauce.
In a large cast iron skillet or pan, add oil on medium heat, add the bacon. Cook until lightly browned and a bit crispy around the edges, then remove skillet from heat keeping everything in the pan.
Add a bit of pasta water to the bacon and fat and then a little bit to the whipped egg.
Add the egg to the skillet and whisk it together.
Add the pasta and peas to the skillet, add more of the pasta water, and grated cheese. Fold it all together.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy!
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