Trout Carbonara

Trout Carbonara

2 cups trout all bones removed
12 ounces fresh spaghettine or fettuccine
¼ cup fine dice onion
1-2 large cloves garlic, fine sliced
1½ tablespoons tomato paste
¼ cup white wine
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 or 2 egg yokes per serving

So now I have cold leftover trout. What to do with it? Having a yen for pasta I decided to do a rift on pasta carbonara. I got some fresh spaghettini (fettuccine would also work).

Get a large pot of water boiling, salt well. Since we are dealing with fresh pasta (2-3 minutes cooking) be sure the water is at a hard boil before starting to build the sauce.

Remove the skin and bones from the cold trout and break into small pieces. Watch out for all those little pin bones. Dice the onion and slice the garlic very thin.

In a large sauté pan, heat a 1-2 tablespoons oil and sauté the onion and garlic. Don’t burn it. A little salt now helps to get the onions sweating. Add the tomato paste and brown it a bit. We are looking for a very light tomato flavor here.

Add the trout and heat through. Add white wine and reduce.

Now separate the eggs. Discard the whites (or save for something else). Don’t break the yokes and if you are cooking for more than one, put each egg yoke (or two) in a separate small bowl.

Now start the pasta. Don’t over cook; you will finish it in the sauce. When the pasta is done, remove with tongs directly to the sauce and mix and let finish. Add more cooking water to keep moist, but not sloppy -- like a salad dressing.

For serving arrange the pasta and trout in a bowl, make a slight depression in the center for the egg yokes. Now slide the raw egg yokes onto the pasta keeping them whole.

Give it a good grind of very course black pepper and a sprinkle of finishing salt.

Dig in! Unlike a traditional carbonara, there is no cream and no cheese. Not that you couldn’t do that, but dairy and fish is generally not kosher for Italian. The egg yokes are broken and mixed in to create a silky rich sauce. It made my dinner.