The biggest challenge in following a banting / low-carb high-fat diet is cutting carbs. I love bread, and I love pasta. Living in Europe for several months didn’t help with these addictions, either. I’ve found, however, that cutting out carbs doesn’t necessarily mean I have to get rid of all the things I love – rather, this new lifestyle can improve dishes rather than taking away from them.
Carbonara is one of the more popular pasta dishes, and I recently learnt from a real live Italian how to make it properly without cream (looking at you, Woolies). Not only is this a much healthier option, but the lightness of the dish is perfectly complemented by the zucchini noodles, which would otherwise be overwhelmed by a cream-based sauce.
So if you’re looking for a healthy, simple and quick alternative to the Italian dinner favourite – this one’s for you:
Serves: 4
Time: 20min
Ingredients:
Pasta
– 2x 350g zucchini noodles (stocked at Woolies)
Sauce
– 2 packs dry-cured pancetta (buy my favourite here) – sliced.
– 300g grated parmigiana or pecorino cheese (I prefer pecorino)
– olive oil (I use Willow Creek truffle-infused — if you want a healthier alternative, substitute this with coconut oil)
– black pepper
Directions:
- Bring the oil to a simmering heat in a large frying pan and then add the sliced pancetta, stirring intermittently.
- Snip the corner off the bag of zucchini noodles and place on a microwaveable plate. Microwave for 2 min only.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine four eggs and the grated cheese.
- Add the zucchini noodles to the frying pan and lower the heat to avoid burning the noodles. Stir to mix the meat and noodles. Add extra oil if necessary.
- Remove the pan from the heat entirely and leave for a minute to cool. This part is extremely important — if you add the egg/cheese while the pan is too hot, it will scramble.
- Add the egg/cheese mixture and stir quickly through the pasta. Note that this is not a sauce-heavy dish.
- You may want to drain the entire dish through a colander should you find the zucchini giving off too much water.
- Season with a lot of black pepper and serve.
