Omelette for Breakfast anyone? Gammon & Cheese Omelette

With still more gammon left over from Sunday, I had this tasty omelette for breakfast today. Folded omelettes are traditionally folded twice, but you can just fold them in half, which is what I tend to do, with the fillings teasingly, peeping out.

Omelettes cook very quickly, so to make one, you must be organised with all your ingredients prepped, and plates warmed, before you start cooking.

For one omelette you will need

• 3 large eggs
• fillings of your choice, I used cubed, cooked gammon, just enough for one omelette
• a reasonable quantity of grated or crumbed cheese, I used parmesan. (I’m being vague with quantities, because it’s personal taste how much you like.)
• Freshly ground pepper
• A knob of butter for the pan

Break the eggs carefully into a bowl, add seasoning, then gently combine the yolks and whites with a fork – don’t overbeat them, combine is the word you need to think of here.

Turn the heat to medium, place the pan over the heat and let it get quite hot (about half a minute). Now add the butter and, as soon as it melts, swiftly swirl it round, tilting the pan so that the base and the sides get coated. Now turn the heat up to its highest setting. When the butter is foaming, pour the eggs into the pan, tilting it to and fro to spread the eggs evenly over the base. Then leave it on the heat without moving it for a count of five.

After 5 seconds a bubbly frill will appear round the edge. Tilt the pan to 45° and, using a tablespoon, draw the edge of the omelette into the centre. The liquid egg will flow into and fill the space. Now tip the pan the other way and do the same thing. Keep tilting it backwards and forwards, pulling the edges in with the spoon and allowing the liquid egg to travel into the space left – all this will take only half a minute. You will have a mound of omelette forming in the centre of the pan, with just a shallow sea of liquid omelette around it. Sprinkle with your choice of filling and the grated cheese.

After a few seconds the remaining liquid will start to set, so now’s the time to start folding. Tilt the pan again and flip one side of the omelette into the centre, then fold again. Take the pan to the warm plate and tip the omelette out on to the plate, or simply folded in half, and sprinkle it with more freshly grated parmesan.

Remember, an omelette will go on cooking, even on the plate, so serve it immediately.

Yummy, delicious, amazingly easy, spaghetti carbonara

Following Sunday’s roast gammon joint, and the resulting, ample leftovers, it was inevitable that last night’s dinner was going to be some kind of pasta dish, or chicken and gammon pie. I have made chicken and gammon pies before, so I wanted to make an authentic spaghetti carbonara, which, despite the years I have cooked pasta dishes, I have never actually made… Hmmm…

It started with me making a simpler version for the kids with fusilli pasta and normal cheddar, which they loved. Then I took the plunge and did the “Ultimate Spaghetti Carbonara” version, with a little help from Gennaro Contaldo… Who else?

The original recipe calls for pancetta, but as I had leftover gammon, I obviously used that. It also called for 50g pecorino cheese and 50g parmesan. I only had parmesan at home, so I used a full 100g of that instead. It tasted delish!

This is such a simple, delicious dish and if you have never made it before, I urge you to give it a whirl, you won’t regret it!

Ingredients (to serve 3 – 4 people)

• 100g pancetta (or in my case cubed gammon)
• 50g pecorino cheese and 50g parmesan (or 100g of parmesan), grated
• 3 large eggs
• 350g spaghetti (I used whole wheat spaghetti as ever…)
• 2 fat garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
• A sizeable knob of unsalted butter (the recipe calls for 50g, but I’m not sure I used as much)
• Freshly ground pepper (it also called for salt too, but I rarely add more salt, not when there is ample salt present in the existing ingredients, i.e., cheese, gammon)

To prepare

Cook the spaghetti for 8 – 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the pancetta or gammon, chopping it up finely. Squash the garlic cloves with the side of a blade of a knife, just to bruise it.

Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the grated cheese, stirring to combine.

Heat the butter in a large, deep saucepan, and add the garlic and gammon or pancetta. Cook on a medium heat, but don’t allow the garlic to burn. Remove the garlic once it has imparted it’s flavour after about 5 minutes. If, like mine, your meat is already cooked, it’s simply a matter of heating it through, rather than making it golden and crisp if it was fresh pancetta. Turn off the heat, but keep on the stove to keep warm.

Once the spaghetti is cooked, either lift out with tongs, or drain over a bowl to reserve some of the cooking water and place the cooked pasta in with the meat, stirring to combine. Mix in the egg and cheese mixture, using tongs or a fork to lift up the spaghetti, so it mixes evenly, but doesn’t scramble and everything is coated. Add extra pasta cooking water, a tablespoon at a time, to keep it moist, but not wet. Season with freshly ground pepper.

Using a fork, twist the pasta onto a plate or bowl. Serve immediately with extra parmesan to top.