Tart London: How to make summer carbonara

We’re both pasta addicts. We think about spaghetti all the time, rely on ravioli for comfort and inevitably end up tucking in to big bowls of penne several nights a week. And we adore taking long weekend romantic jaunts to Italy with our respective partners. It’s become a bit of a tradition. We come back telling each other about the dreamiest dishes we ate, from spaghetti alle vongole on the clifftops of Positano to seppie al nero at a Roman backstreet family-run joint.

Here’s our take on carbonara, said to be one of the four quintessential Roman pasta dishes. It sums up the beauty of Roman cooking: simple, confident and incredibly delicious. Getting this dish right is an art well worth perfecting. The more Parmesan, black pepper and egg yolks the better, although be careful not to end up with egg-fried pasta!

You can tweak this classic base to your taste by taking out the pancetta and making it veggie-friendly, adding seasonal greens to make it fresh and herby, or some chilli to give it some depth. This is our summer version, lighter and brighter than the classic but still luxurious. It’s a perfect dinner for all ages and a great way to get kids into greens.

Ingredients

300g dried spaghetti

8 asparagus spears, sliced diagonally into 1cm pieces

200g fresh peas

100g broad beans (optional)

1 tbsp olive oil

5 rashers of pancetta, chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

4 egg yolks

Handful of Parmesan,

finely grated

Handful of basil leaves,

roughly chopped

2 sprigs of mint, finely chopped

½ a lemon, juice and zest

Summer Carbonara