Last week the New York Times printed a recipe in their food section for a spring vegetable-inspired version of puttanesca. While the recipe sounded pretty good to me, the fresh, seasonal ingredients seemed an insult to the character of puttanesca.
Puttanesca, named for the Neapolitan prostitutes who supposedly made pasta this way, is traditionally spaghetti with a sauce of tomatoes, chilies, anchovies, capers and olives. Its beauty lies in the fact that it can be made from what you already have in the pantry. Apparently, the prostitutes worked at night and slept too late to get to the market before the produce stalls had been packed up. But that didn’t stop their creativity in the kitchen.
So why put all those fresh flavors of spring in there, straight from the farmers’ market?
Why not put them into a carbonara? After all, carbonara (named for charcoal makers who work in the winter and early spring in the forests) is an egg emulsion. And egg emulsions are classically employed to dress up springtime delicacies.
Asparagus and hollandaise anyone? How about some spinach on those Eggs Benedict? So why not spring garlic (or spinach or asparagus, for that matter) in your carbonara? I love spring garlic with eggs!
And it seems to me that if those Apennine wood cutters found a way to keep some pigs and chickens around, they most certainly would have planted themselves a little patch of garlic, too.
A quick perusal of the internet turned up this recipe for a garlic scape-based carbonara from the very nice Italian cooking blog Sarah’s Cucina Bella:
Garlic Scape Carbonara
- 1/2 lb campanella pasta, or shape of your choosing
- 4 slices bacon (about 3 1/4 ounces), chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped garlic scapes (or spring garlic)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
Set a pot of water to boiling on the stove and cook the campanella pasta (or desired shape).
While it’s cooking, cook the bacon over medium heat until browned. Remove the bacon pieces with a slotted spoon and add the garlic scapes. Cook until soft (2-3 minutes). Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. (Drain both the bacon and the garlic scapes on a paper towel).
Whisk together the eggs, salt and red pepper flakes.
When the pasta is done, quickly remove it from the stove and set a different burner to low heat. Drain the pasta and add it back to the pot, on the burner set to low. Stir in the garlic scapes and bacon. Add the egg mixture and stir feverishly for 3-4 minutes until sauce is thick and creamy. Don’t let it overcook or it will be gloppy. Sprinkle the romano cheese in, a little at a time, and stir to combine. Don’t add it all at once or it won’t mix throughout the pasta as well (since it will clump).
Serve immediately.
I love tacos. There's nothing quite like that combination of fresh corn tortillas, crispy, fatty meat, pickled vegetables and cilantro. Before tomatoes are in season I like to make this spring version of pico de gallo using baby root vegetables, spring garlic or scapes, green onions and the first of the homegrown cilantro. 
We don't grow flowers here at the Kitchen Garden. Our rule is "if you can't eat it, we don't grow it." So when there is a flower that we offer, we delight in both its edibility and its aesthetic merits.