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Bacon & Mushroom Courgetti Carbonara

Name: Bacon & Mushroom Courgetti Carbonara
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 2 courgettes (about 400g), spiralised or peeled into ribbons; 6 rashers of bacon, cut into strips; 150g mushrooms, sliced; 2 eggs; 50g parmesan, finely grated; 1 garlic clove, chopped small; 1 tbsp olive oil; Black pepper, to taste

Creamy carbonara with courgette ribbons instead of pasta. No cream needed, the egg and cheese make the sauce.

Serves 2Prep 10 minCook 15 min

5gcarbs
per serving

About 5g of carbs per serving. Everything in the list. This is a whole meal. How we worked it out

You'll need

2 courgettes (about 400g), spiralised or peeled into ribbons
6 rashers of bacon, cut into strips
Don't have it?
- Ham: Tear it up and add it near the end. No need to crisp it.
150g mushrooms, sliced
2 eggs
50g parmesan, finely grated
Don't have it?
- Grana padano or any Italian hard cheese: Same weight, cheaper.
- Mature cheddar: Use about double, finely grated. Milder, but works.
1 garlic clove, chopped small
Don't have it?
- Garlic granules or garlic paste: A quarter tsp of granules or 1 tsp of paste for each clove.
1 tbsp olive oil
Black pepper, to taste

Method

In a bowl, mix the eggs, parmesan and lots of black pepper with a fork. Put it next to the cooker.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan on a medium heat. Fry the bacon for 5 minutes until starting to crisp.
Add the mushrooms and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until soft and golden. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute.
Add the courgette and toss everything together for 2 to 3 minutes, just until it's hot. Any longer and it goes watery.
Take the pan off the heat and wait 30 seconds. Pour in the egg mix and keep tossing for about a minute. The heat of the pan turns it into a creamy sauce.
Serve straight away with more pepper and parmesan.

Tip

Taking the pan off the heat before the egg goes in is the trick. Too hot and you get scrambled egg.

Swaps

Use ham instead of bacon: tear it up and add it with the courgette.
Shop-bought courgetti from the chiller cabinet saves the spiralising.

Storing it

Best eaten straight away. The courgette goes watery if it's kept.

Food safety

The egg sauce is cooked by the heat of the pan, so the egg stays soft. Use eggs with the British Lion stamp, which the Food Standards Agency says are fine runny for everyone. If you're cooking for someone pregnant, older or unwell and using other eggs, keep the pan on a low heat and keep stirring until the sauce thickens fully.

How we worked out 5g of carbs

Ingredient	Weight	Per 100g	Carbs
Courgette UK government food tables	400g	1.8g	7.2g
Mushrooms UK government food tables	150g	0.3g	0.5g
Eggs UK government food tables (trace)	100g	0g	0.0g
Parmesan UK government food tables	50g	0.9g	0.5g
Garlic (1 clove = 4g) UK government food tables	4g	16.3g	0.7g
Total			8.8g
÷ 2 servings, rounded up			5g

Meat, fish, oil, salt, pepper and water have no carbs, so they're left out. How we count carbs.

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