Fresh Salmon “Carbonara”

Pasta, fresh salmon, eggs and parmesan make up this gloriously tasty and easy meal. I’m calling it “Carbonara” and hoping I won’t get told off by any of my Italian friends.

As I said in the original Greek post, I do apologise to aforementioned Italians for using the name Carbonara in what may be to them a totally unacceptable way. I once read a veeery long thread of comments on a blog where a war had broken out over what constitutes a “real” carbonara. It was fascinating and quite entertaining to see how strongly people feel about the issue. I suppose I can understand, since I get more than a tad annoyed when people say things like “I made tzatziki with carrot and no garlic”. Um, you made something, but it wasn’t tzatziki my friend. The aggressiveness of the comments started to escalate dangerously when someone mentioned eating spaghetti with ketchup; it really was hilarious. I of course stayed well away from the debate as I’m guilty of several such crimes, including eating Heinz spaghetti on toast for a major number of my student dinners.

And here I am again, straying from tradition and doing strange things to a carbonara. I’ve come a long way since the –on toast days, so this is in fact a very delicious and if I may say so myself, sophisticated pasta dish. I stayed true to the sauce, which is just eggs and parmesan (no cream!), but out went the pancetta and in came the cooked fresh salmon. And the peas.

Call it what you will, this dish is very good and makes a great midweek dinner option. If you have some leftover cooked salmon, it can be whipped up in the time it takes to boil the pasta. If you don’t, I suggest grilling (broiling) the fish before you start (see note).