South African Carbonara (aka Avocado Carbonara)

Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 8-12 mins

Difficulty:
Serves: 4

Ingredients

- Pasta (500g, preferably linguine or bavette, but any other type would do);
- Avocados (2-3, soft);
- Smoked bacon (250 g, best if diced and labelled as "pancetta affumicata");
- Full cream (250 ml, best if thick);
- Grana Padano (100g, best if freshly grated, Parmigiano Reggiano also ok, possibly avoid non-Italian imitations such as "Parmesan cheese" ;-) );
- Salt (to taste);
- Black pepper (a dash, best if freshly milled).

Method

1) Peel and the avocados and put them with the cream and the grated cheese in the blender until it becomes a fine cream. When it's done, add salt and pepper to taste;

2) Fry the bacon in a pan until crunchy (with a little extra virgin olive oil, if necessary);

3) Cook the pasta (follow instructions and cooking time as marked on the box);

4) When the pasta is ready, drain it and put it in the pan with the bacon and stir it for a few second, while on the stove;

5) Put the pasta with the bacon in a large bowl and slowly stir in the avocado-cream mix;

6) Serve and enjoy! (You might want to sprinkle some pepper and some grated cheese on every plate before serving).

(Optional: diced cherry tomatoes might also been added)

[Created by: [email protected]]