April 26, 2010

Jamie Oliver's Fresh Pasta with Oozy Cheese

M. loves Jamie Oliver (maybe he thinks he's dreamy...) and is always inspired by Jamie's fresh cooking with quality ingredients and the great dishes that result from simple processes. Take our riff on Jamie's Fresh Tagliatelle with Sprouting Broccoli and Oozy Cheese.


We watched a little YouTube video of Jamie making fresh pasta- he makes it look so easy!- and liked his method of making an egg and cheese sauce in a double boiler over the steaming pasta water. And of course, we had to include bacon somehow (maybe I was subconsciously trying to make up for my failed Carbonara).


So the way this works is, after you make your fresh pasta and boil your water, you place a metal bowl over the boiling water. Then, you begin melting your cheese and creme fraiche sauce in the heated bowl which creates a nice silky, smooth texture.


Here you see the creme fraiche and some olive oil melting together. After the cheeses (creme fraiche and Parmesan) are melted together, add the fresh pasta to the boiling water. At this point, we added diced cooked bacon, some diced fresh herbs, salt and pepper, and two egg yolks.


The finished sauce isn't too pretty, but is sure is tasty. This was all whisked up and heated through while the pasta and chopped broccolini boiled for a quick minute.


Mmm... steamy.


Finished and topped with some more grated Parmesan, this pasta dish was rich and smoky, but yet had vegetables (which totes makes it healthy)! I love how versatile this method of sauce-making was - only 2 dirty dishes and a plethora (of pinatas?) no, a plethora of options for additions. Now for the sake of my waistline, I just gotta keep M. away from the creme fraiche- the man wants to add it to everything!