So, I have to admit, I didn’t execute this recipe very well. Jamie made it look so easy on his TV programme last week but sadly I don’t have very advanced culinary skills and I could really tell the difference between recipes in Deliciously Ella and Jamie’s Everyday Superfood – this required a lot more stages/processes and a lot more pans/washing up. Jenna was doing some meal prep in the kitchen at the same time so it all got a little stressful…

Part of the reason was that I attempted to make the recipe with courgetti, rather than pasta because pasta doesn’t sit with me very well. However, the courgetti didn’t take to the sauce, and so I ended up with half courgetti and half brown pasta. This actually worked out pretty nicely, but it just depends if you can be bothered to make the courgetti in the first place!

I doubled the recipe so it would serve 4, as all my previous recipes have served 4 and it means it will last me for the week now that I’ve run out of veggie chilli! I then doubled again the amount of bacon and garlic… Yes, I quadrupled the amount of bacon that Jamie recommended… Guilty!

Despite the poor execution, it turned out to be surprisingly tasty considering the skinnyness of the ‘carbonara’ sauce. Weaze came to visit London last night from Holland for just one night only. She arrived at the flat a little tipsy after an event, so this pasta was perfect for sobering up! I’m also having to stay at Uni until 9pm (hello, pity party) which means I need a filling lunch to keep me going through the afternoon, and this absolutely does the trick… Along with a tonne of coffee.

What you need: 400g frozen peas, flaked almonds (left over from Ella’s flapjacks on Monday), garlic, a bunch of fresh basil, 2 lemons, pasta/courgettes, 2-4 (or even more) rashers of bacon, 2 eggs, 200g fat-free natural yoghurt (I used alpro soya yoghurt and it worked totally fine!)

Jamie’s recipe also includes Parmesan cheese. I didn’t get any Parmesan because it’s quite expensive, and I’m not sure when I would use it again. So, I just sprinkled some cheddar on the top of my pasta at the end! However, if you do want some Parmesan, you will need 30g for 4 people.

One of the main reasons why I chose this recipe (other than Jamie cooking it on his TV show last week) was that the ingredients were all things that I usually have at home and so were low maintenance, and because the peas were frozen I felt no pressure to cook this recipe at the beginning of the week.

What to do:

1) Make your courgetti (honestly, this is optional!)

2) Cook the frozen peas

3) Toast the almonds. (I wasn’t sure if toasting was really needed but I used the pan for the bacon later anyway so I listened to Jamie with this one) Then blitz the almonds in a food processor.

4) Add the garlic, pinch of sea salt, basil, Parmesan (if used), and lemon juice to the processor and blitz together. Then add the peas. At this point, Jamie said to just pulse the peas to try and keep a bit of texture. This makes total sense, however it was quite hard to just ‘pulse’ on my NutriBullet as I’ve only had it for a week and still don’t really know how to use it properly… So mine became more of a pea puree! (Still delicious though)

5) Cook the pasta. (I actually did this step right at the end once I had realised my courgetti mistake… But this is when Jamie says to cook it)

6) Finely slice the bacon and then fry. Jamie says to then remove the bacon from the pan before adding the pea mixture… But I was too lazy for this so just added my mixture to the bacon in the pan. I’ll leave this one up to you.

7) Add the pea and bacon mixture to your drained pasta and once mixed, take the pan off the heat

8) Whisk the eggs and yoghurt well and then pour into the pan. It’s important that the pan has been taken off the heat so that the eggs don’t scramble. I was really nervous about this because I’ve never made carbonara before and the egg thing seemed risky, but I had no issues in the end and the egg/yoghurt combo really improved the texture of the sauce.

And then serve! If you could be bothered to remove the bacon from the pan at stage 6, then serve with the bacon on top. For me, I just added some salt, pepper and grated cheddar. (And of course some basil for an aesthetically pleasing picture…)

Please don’t be put off by my not-so-successful attempt, it ended up being really good and a really healthy pasta dish which is amazing comfort food now it’s October (cry). It just looked nothing like it did on TV…