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The last time I made spaghetti carbonara, I used canned carbonara sauce. It tasted alright but it’s not quite the same as the one made from scratch. Un-Italian though this version may sound, let me assure you it really has quite an international flavor about it .

Okay, I got creative and used French beans and enoki mushrooms which I take it are from Japan ? Anyhow I was looking for shiitake mushrooms but it didn’t have a price label and I didn’t want to waste time hunting down the barcode scanner so I opted for the enoki instead.

For this, I used:

• spaghetti to feed 5 people
• 2 large slices of bacon ham, cut into long, thin strips
• 1 handful of french beans, blanched
• 1 pack of enoki mushrooms
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 packet (250g) of heavy cream
• 1 sachet of mushroom soup base
• Italian seasoning
• dried parsley flakes
• black pepper
• olive oil

I cook the spaghetti till al dente. In a non-stick pan, I drizzle some olive oil and saute the onions. Then I add the heavy cream and mushroom soup base, stirring continuously to mix well. I didn’t use any cheese because I reckon the heavy cream is fattening enough.

Then in go the french beans, bacon ham and enoki mushrooms. I let everything simmer for about 5-7 minutes on medium to low heat. Add a sprinkle of Italian seasoning, dried parsley flakes and black pepper, and season with salt to taste.

I pour the cooked spaghetti into the carbonara sauce, turn off the heat and mix to coat the spaghetti well. It’s best eaten piping hot before all that lovely sauce gets soaked up.

I made a huge big bowl for lunch and the kids whacked everything in one sitting. There were no leftovers and that’s definitely a good sign. It means I should cook this again sometime .