Rigatoni ‘carbonara style’ with smoked eel and truffle
There is no meat in this pasta, but you do borrow the technique of a carbonara pasta for this exquisite dish. The idea comes from Bistro de la Mer in Amsterdam – which is absolutely worth a visit should you be in town. My dear friend Bo taught me the technique, demonstrating his expert carbonara skills to me.
This is meant as a starter, but it could serve as a main by adjusting either servings or ingredient quantities.
Equipment
- truffle grater
- Fine cheese grater
- heat resistant bowl that fits on a pasta pan (without falling in)
- whisk
Ingredients
- 6 smoked eel filets
- 1 fresh truffle
- 200 gram rigatoni
- 6 eggs
- 50 gram Parmigiano Reggiano
- 50 gram Pecorino
- freshly grated pepper if possible Maniguette pepper
- fresh cress as garnish
- salt
Instructions
Preparations
- Cut your eel in pieces the size of a fingertip.
- Separate 4 of the 6 eggs. You'll only use the yolks of these. You'll also use the 2 remaining whole eggs. You can use the whites for a dessert, for example with meringues.
- Finely grate the Parmigiano and Pecorino.
Pasta & sauce
- Cook water with a small pinch of salt for your pasta. When it cooks, add the rigatoni to the water.
- Take your heat resistant bowl, put it on top of the pasta pan (while the pasta is cooking). Put the 4 egg yolks and the 2 eggs into the bowl, together with the grated cheese and 2 table spoons of pasta water and start whisking until you get a fluffy mixture. If it is too thick, add some more pasta water, if it's too thin, add more grated cheese.
- When you're happy with the mixture of the sauce (or if the egg starts to look like scrambled egg), take the bowl off the heat and put it aside.
- Drain the pasta when ready, keep some of the pasta water just in case you'll still need some for the sauce.
- Mix the pasta with the sauce, add some pepper.
Plating & serving
- Serve by putting some pasta on a plate, add some pieces of eel, grate some extra pepper over the dish and garnish with a cress.
- Grate the truffle over the dish while the plates are on the table.