Butternut Squash Carbonara

I've had this recipe in saved in my Google Reader for awhile now. I had some butternut squash left over from my in-laws' garden and thought this would be a great recipe to use it on. This recipe once again comes from Closet Cooking, and I only slightly adapted it to fit the ingredients I had on hand.

Butternut Squash Carbonara

Ingredients

1/2 lb pasta

6 slices bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 cups squash, cut into small pieces

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tablespoon thyme

pepper

2 egg yolks

2 Tablespoons heavy cream

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Cook pasta according to directions on package. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup pasta water, and set aside.

Fry the bacon in a pan. When cooked, drain all but about 1 Tablespoon of grease from the pan. Add squash, garlic, thyme and pepper to pan and toss to coat in bacon grease. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until squash is soft. Add the pasta to the pan and toss.

Mix the egg yolks, heavy cream and Parmesan in a bowl. Remove the pan from heat and add the egg mixture; toss to coat. Add pasta water until you reach desired consistency. Garnish wish more thyme.

Amanda's Analysis:

This was very tasty and I'm sorry I waited so long to try it! While the flavors are a little subtle, it is just enough to not be bland. I also found the bacon and squash flavors a little more bold when I ate the leftovers for lunch the next day. Overall, while this recipe doesn't stand out as my favorite thing I've ever eaten, it was a fairly quick and easy dish and was a delicious way to use butternut squash. I have already added this recipe to my recipe box. I give this carbonara 6 spoons!

John's Jibba-Jabba:

Bacon makes everything better. This recipe is a very good example of that. One thing I did not know was that bacon was so shy. When we first ate this recipe for dinner it was just ok. After a night in the fridge, the bacon was able to spend some time getting to know the other ingredients a little better. Boy oh boy, the next day once bacon opened up a bit this recipe sure did sing. I would have to say this is probably one of the tastiest thing I have taken to work for lunch. Thank you bacon! This recipe gets 5 spoons for dinner, but 7 spoons for a brown bag lunch.