Creamy Pasta Carbonara

You can't really call this a "traditional" carbonara, but if it's good enough for Giada, it's good enough for me.  And boy, is it good!  I adapted her recipe quite a bit to appeal to my own tastes, and because I simply could not justify putting 6 egg yolks into this one dish (but 2 cups of cheese, that's fine).  Any way you make this, you really can't go wrong. With tons of cheese, cream, and smoky, salty bacon and pancetta, this is pasta heaven.  Just be very careful not to boil the cream mixture once you've added it to the pasta, or you will end up with a curdled, separated, disgusting mess (trust me, I know).

I first had pasta carbonara at Three Tomatoes Trattoria in Burlington, VT and I was immediately hooked! How can you not be? And the addition of veggies in their version really lightened the dish and made it absolutely perfect.  I've thought about adding some white wine to the recipe, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.  Feel free to play around and tell me how it goes!

Oh and the best part about this dish, it keeps great in the fridge and reheats wonderfully. Yay leftovers you actually WANT to eat! 

Cheesy Potato Gratin

It was a close call between the cheese gougères and the potato gratin, but in the end the potato gratin won out (not that there were so many votes in the first place).  Both were amazingly delicious and don't worry, I will definitely be posting the gougères recipe sometime in the future. But on to the gratin...

It is sooooo yummy! Which is not very surprising considering it is made with heavy whipping cream and butter.  This particular incarnation uses only regular potatoes and involves cheese between the layers, but you can add sweet potatoes and only put cheese on top and it will still be to die for (dare I say maybe even better?)!  

If this cheesy, bubbly picture doesn't make you drool all on its own, try reading on to see if you can handle even more cheesy potato goodness...