Deployment Carbonara

I've eaten a lot of pasta during this deployment. It's easy, it's filling, and you can make it in small portions. At first I mostly just ate pasta with olive oil, salt & pepper & parmesan cheese but after a while I started experimenting with other simple options.

I absolutely LOVE Spaghetti Carbonara....to me it's basically like an adult macaroni & cheese. What's not to love?!? When I feel like a traditional Carbonara I make this recipe that I featured on my old food blog. But one day I was craving Carbonara and didn't have any bacon or parmesan cheese. What I did have was goat cheese so I experimented and ended up loving the result!

In this case I used Lemon Goat Cheese, which gives the pasta a great lemony flavor but you could use any flavor of goat cheese! Or, if you just have plain goat cheese and still want lemon flavor you could add a squeeze of lemon juice to the pasta.

Lemony Spaghetti Carbonara {aka Deployment Carbonara}
Source: me

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. spaghetti, half a package {I use whole wheat}
• 1 egg
• 2 oz. lemon goat cheese, half a package {or any flavor goat cheese you prefer}
• Salt to taste
  
• Lots of freshly ground black pepper

Procedure:

Boil water and cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, crack the egg into a small bowl and beat well with a whisk. Crumble the goat cheese into the beaten egg and then mix well with the whisk. It's okay if there are still lumps of goat cheese...just get them incorporated together. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to the egg mixture. Set aside.

Once pasta is al dente, drain water and then IMMEDIATELY place pasta back in the hot cooking pot. Quickly pour the egg & cheese mixture into the hot pasta and immediately stir to combine. Timeliness is key here because this is the only way you are "cooking" the eggs. If you don't do this quickly you will be dealing with raw eggs in your pasta...not good.

Add more salt & pepper to taste and serve immediately.

Makes 3-4 servings...depending on how big your servings are. :)

Libby wanted some Carbonara too.