TFF: Pancetta Carbonara

In Tyler's book, Dinner at my place, this is known as, "My wife's pregnancy pasta."

That title must have sent my brain back into pregnancy mode - shrunken ad not working properly at all. Why else would I choose to make a pasta for dinner that I KNEW at least half of my family would not like?

Yes, my family really likes pasta. But let me qualify that: my husband loves his spaghetti, with tomato based sauces only. My children like cream sauces, but my husband does not. And the boys like fun pasta shapes, but my husband does not.

So here I was on a Sunday night, standing over a double boiler, with my nearly 10 year old immersion blender, trying to make the sauce for this pasta. I didn't have time to make my own, so I had used the only long, non-whole wheat pasta I had, a long tube pasta that I had bought for fun - spaghetti length, but thick with almost a straw like make up. Yes, fun pasta! In the bowl I had 6 eggs, a cup of cream and a cup of milk. I went back and forth between my blender and a whisk, so my immersion blender did not burn out on me, when my husband walked in, looked at what I was doing, and said, "Cream based? With eggs?"

That is when the bells went off. A little late.

To be fair, he ate a full bowl. My youngest dove into his, but then proclaimed he did not like it. My oldest raved about it for 1/3 of his bowl, then put the rest in the fridge "for later." I found it alright, but rather rich and did not finish my bowl either. I tried some again for lunch the next day and found it tasted like scrambled eggs on noodles, so it did not reheat well.

So much for trying something different. After cleaning up, I made a second dinner, another pasta, but this time a staple that everyone will eat.

For other Tyler Florence Friday participants, his recipe is on page 146 of Dinner at my Place, and is missing an important step: When done eating, break out the mop to clean up the sauce splatters from your floor, a result of the immersion blender.