Recipe from Life Kitchen by Ryan Riley, Bloomsbury Publishing.
Ingredients - Serves: 4
1 large onion, very roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves
1 red or green chilli, roughly chopped
vegetable or rapeseed oil
200g smoked bacon lardons
100g parmesan, grated, plus extra to serve
2 tsp salt, plus extra to season
4 eggs
400g dried tagliatelle
a large handful of frozen peas
a small handful of mint leaves, torn if large
freshly ground black pepper
Method
Pulse the onion, garlic and chilli in a food processor to finely chop. (Or finely chop by hand.)
Place a frying pan on a medium–low heat and add a glug of oil. When hot, add the chopped mixture and the lardons and season with salt. Cover with a lid (or use foil) and sweat on a low heat for 20–30 minutes, removing the lid to stir occasionally, until the onions have melted to a golden paste. Meanwhile, beat together the grated parmesan and the eggs in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the 2 teaspoons of salt and cook the tagliatelle according to the packet instructions. Two minutes before the end of the cooking time, take 2 ladlefuls of the cooking water and stir it into the parmesan and egg mixture. Then, add the frozen peas to the pan with the pasta. When the pasta is cooked, drain it with the peas and tip everything back into the pan.
Add the parmesan and egg mixture and the onion and bacon mixture to the pasta and peas and stir – the sauce will take 2–3 minutes to heat through; just keep stirring and it will turn glossy and coat the pasta. Transfer to a serving dish and scatter over the mint leaves and extra parmesan.