I really, really love spaghetti carbonara. I love how salty the bacon is is, and how the creaminess of the sauce is punctuated by the freshly ground black pepper, and how the sharp scallions I chop up and throw in cut through the rich, pungent cheese and the delicate eggs. But it's not exactly the kind of thing you can have every night without feeling more than slight guilt about the whole thing.Which is why last night, when I was futzing around the fridge, trying to figure out what else to toss into the rapidly boiling pot of spaghetti (leftover roasted brussels sprouts and some braised garlic already sitting at the bottom of the bowl, waiting to be tossed), all I wanted was cheese and eggs and bacon. But then my eye alighted on my 17-ounce container of Fage fat-free yogurt.
As much as I love carbonara - that's how much I always hated plain yogurt. Bland, flat, and almost sour, it was worse than cheese. And I HATED cheese.
But then, about six months ago, someone on eGullet clued me into Fage - the fat-free version is thick, creamy, adaptable, and remorse-free. I eat it with granola, with slices of honeybell, with brown sugar, but it had never occurred to me to use it in a savory dish.
I tossed a couple tablespoons with the hot pasta...the result? All the creaminess (well, almost), none of the guilt. Sold!
3 comments:
Do you associate unadorned plain yoghurt with being sick as a child? I remember my mother serving me ginger ale, toast and plain yoghurt if I was sick. Though I would get honey on the toast or in the yoghurt if I were lucky.
Actually, I think it might have more to do with the fact that I never ate it as a child, so it just became more exotic and, frankly, nasty-seeming as the years went by.
BTW, mausy, your typing skills have improved markedly since I saw you last.
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