For three weeks in a row, this has been our Tuesday night dinner: pasta tossed with a sautéed onion, a ton of greens, and carbonara sauce: 2 eggs whisked with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/4 cup parmesan, and 1/4 cup pasta cooking water.
Why Tuesday? Tuesday is CSA pick-up day, and recent deliveries have been loaded with spinach, tatsoi, broccoli rabe and various other greens. After unpacking our CSA, instead of stashing the greens in the fridge, I plunge them into a bowl of water to soak, set a large pot of water on to boil, slice an onion, and whisk together the sauce. The whole dish comes together in about 20 minutes.
I love the addition of bacon found in classic carbonara recipes (as here, here, and here), but it’s not missed in this version. And though the heap of greens wilts down to seemingly nothing, I know it’s there, doing all the good things a heap of greens ought to be doing.
Happy Friday, Everyone. Have a wonderful weekend.
Here’s how you make this weeknight, no-bacon, greens-loaded pasta carbonara: Gather all of your greens and …
soak them in water.
Meanwhile, put on a large pot of water and salt it generously. Find a box or bag of pasta in your pantry:
Meanwhile, gather your sauce ingredients:
Whisk together 2 eggs with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, and, when the pasta is almost finished cooking, 1/4 cup pasta cooking liquid:
Sauté an onion:
Add your drained greens:
Wilt them down:
Add the pasta:
Toss with carbonara sauce:
Serve immediately with lots of fresh cracked pepper:
5 from 12 reviews
Pasta Carbonara with Leeks and Lemon Orecchiette Carbonara with Asparagus Bucatini Carbonara with Leeks and Lemon
It’s pictured here with pappardelle egg noodles only because that’s what I had on hand when I decided to make/photograph this. I like this equally with linguini or bucatini. Note: I give a range of pasta amounts because depending on how many people you’re cooking for you may want more or less pasta. And same for the greens — it’s pictured here with 1 lb. of greens, but as you can see from the photos, the greens wilt down to nothing, so 2 lbs of greens would be fine. You may have to add them incrementally if you use 2 lbs.
