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Cooking Notes
Douglas Branch
Nothing about this recipe that can't be improved by a pinch of red pepper flakes, either.
Delise
Added crushed red pepper, but made the recipe as directed otherwise. The next night I decided to serve the leftovers. Since the sauce from the night before had been absorbed by the pasta, I cooked more bacon, sautéed more kale and added some mushrooms. I used white wine to deglaze the skillet since there was no pasta water. I added the pasta from the night before to the skillet to heat up and coat with the sauce. The outcome was delicious. I will probably make it that way henceforth.
Christa
The sauce doesn't do any better in the full recipe. I've been burned by too many Alison Roman recipes. A good recipe should speak for itself: the more hyperbole, the more you should be thinking: Warning! Warning! My greens all clumped together. Alison Roman's recipes just don't deliver.
Larry
How can you go wrong with bacon, bitter greens, garlic, pepper, pasta and a fried egg? Made with escarole, pecorino, black pepper and a pinch of red - heaven!
q
What's brilliant about this dish is that you truly can use anything with it. In lieu of bacon olive oil and garlic, in lieu of kale any green vegetables, and so on. At the end of the day a beautifully simple and cheap dish for those on a budget.
Gaby
This recipe is excellent. I had a small mishap when just starting to wilt the kale in the bacon fat and had to start over with regular olive oil. It was still *super* tasty.
Jean/ Holland Ohio
I melted some butter onto the pasta, then substituted turkey bacon. Zummy.
2_pigs
Made as directed except substituted spinach, because that’s what I had on hand. So decadent, but so good.
kieran
Could have done with more greens and more pasta water
Sarah
Was really looking forward to this-- all the elements are delicious, but for some reason it didn't come together for me. I had to unexpectedly scale down the recipe, and I wonder if the sauce would do better in the full amount (maybe my pasta water didn't get starchy enough?). As I was eating this dish, I just wanted it to be carbonara. :) I'll likely try again with the full amount.
Carita
Love the idea behind this recipe. Made it for dinner this evening for two, using about 5 ounces of non-cured bacon, dinasour kale, and 5 ounces of pasta (substituting red lentil pasta at the same time). The only problem with that type of pasta is; no starchy cooking water but still used a half cup of cooking liquids. Fried two eggs per portion which really helped create the notion of a sauce. Also finished with a slight dusting of red pepper flakes. Crazy, crazy good.
Brian
Used dandelion greens, farfalle pasta and added red pepper flakes. Delicious! This one will go into the weeknight rotation.
Douglas Branch
Dang. What's not to like?
Amy
Lou and I liked this. Jacob ate it minus the egg. Next time I’ll deglaze with wine as another commenter suggested. Will try Badger Mountain Organic Riesling, which tasted really good with the salty, smoky bacon. Plus it has no added sulfites. Campanelle worked well for the pasta. 1.5x the kale is better. 2x like others used would be fine. I finely chopped a ton of garlic with olive oil in the ninja to have on hand, so I used a bunch of that instead of slicing fresh. Worked fine.
JDM
Oh man! I used spinach because -- no kale. It was perfect. It made me think of spanikopita. So I added lemon zest and a tiny pinch of nutmeg. I love it! This was really tasty, flavorful, hardy and...super-good. Use less water when you boil the noodles -- this makes a more concentrated starchy-water.
Nohra
I threw in a few chopped sundried tomatoes, and it turned out great. This is a very customizable recipe - just make sure you don't drain the bacon fat before you add the pasta water or it won't thicken into a sauce.
Gloria De Jesus
Recipe can be followed flawlessly. The flavors come afloat as you eat. I would not change it by adding or reducing ingredients. In my view, perfect as is!
Laura
Delish. Definitely Carbonara-esque with the egg yolk and bacon. Loved it.
MaisyT
Turned out to be a great way to use leftover cooked, plain pasta. In my case, a ziplock bag of ziti. So instead of the pasta water called for in the recipe, I used chicken broth. And as for bacon, applewood is tops.
Ann
This was easy enough but a little bland.
Jo
Pretty good riff on carbonara. Not a fan of runny yolks, so I left the egg out. Didn’t have kale, but ordinary greens worked fine, although I agree with another poster who said the proportion could be upped a bit. I’m cooking for one, so didn’t use as much bacon as the recipe said, and wondering if that’s why it didn’t render enough fat; needed to add a small amount of butter to cook the garlic. Watch for salt; added a turn or two of the salt mill and it was on the (just too) salty side.
John
What a fantastic, quick, and satisfying recipe. I used spinach since that's all I had and like others added red pepper flakes. Recommended.
Nancy
Nicely flavorful - lots of room for variation. Made half recipe, used one large bunch of chard. I would like to try it with different greens. Added a small shallot. Cooked the eggs in a small frying pan with some of the bacon grease.
scott
Like others, added about 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes. Also added about 1/4 cup sundried tomatoes as well as parsley and lemon to finish. Turned out awesome!
EV
This was delicious. Make sure to be patient with the egg so the edges really crisp up
Kat V
So good and filling. For a hearty single serving I did 3 oz pasta, 2 slices of bacon, 1 egg, and 1/3 cup pasta water. I used Trader Joe's Zuchette pasta, and for the vegetables I used zucchini and onion because it's what I had on hand. Didn't feel like crushing garlic so I used a large amount of garlic powder. Was quick and easy and I'll definitely make again.
Raymond Diamond
Good basic pasta/greens recipe. The only issue with the recipe - which seems to be a recurring one - the propensity of cooking everything using only one pan! The eggs are cooked in Step 3. Then they are set aside (!!) for the remaining 5 steps - which takes about 11 minutes. If the eggs aren't cold by now, the "runny" yolks have hardened through carryover heat. Put some of the bacon (Step 2) in a separate pan and move Step 3 to the end of the recipe.
Beth B.
Doubled the cheese and more bacon. Good with a sprinkle of red pepper or harissa on top.
JJ
Eggs are in short supply in our area.A dear friend shared hers with us. This was the first thing we made. Wonderful! Thanks to all who share in these difficult times!
Dixiechikken
This was sooooooo good - my husband and I are on the COVID-19 front lines and we needed something easy, comforting and delicious. I wish my egg had been a little runnier - it firmed up while it sat - but otherwise it was fabulous and less fussy than the recipe looks.
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