Recipe #5: Beautiful Courgette Carbonara

By Jamie Oliver:

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 6 medium green and yellow courgettes

• 500g penne

• 4 large free-range or organic egg yolks

• 100ml double cream• 2 good handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

• olive oil

• 12 thick slices of pancetta or smoked streaky bacon, cut into chunky lardoons

• a small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped, flowers reserved (if you can get hold of flowering thyme)

• optional: a few courgette flowers

By Andrew Fernandez:

I love the fact that I really ventured out of found out what pancetta really was for this dish. Plainly put, it was a rolled up piece of smoked ham that could be custom cut into any thickness you wanted by your meat-deli-tender. I was a little disappointed when I saw the final product handed to me a a fancy sealed up zip-locker bag. Interesting... I have to say tho

ugh that it did add an interest to the carbonara dish as it was laid out on the platter. I finally venture out away from "sage" with this dish by using thyme. I am pleasantly surprised that fresh herbs make the world of difference when cooking. I did run into some problems with using egg yolks and not really cooking them, but just adding hot water to it. But it turned out great! The dish is surprisingly easy to make and the pancetta does make the difference, though you really could substitute with just bacon. It may not look all that great in strips.

If you were wondering what Courgettes are? Well in the United States of America, we call it Zucchini and Squash! This is a great dish to feed a bunch quickly.