Kakibonara: A Rich Oyster Carbonara Made the Roman Way

The Dish blend we recommend for this recipe. Dish Symphony No.1

Carbonara, made with plenty of egg and cheese, is one of the great pastas, loved by small children and adults alike.

Carbonara has a reputation for containing cream or milk, but that is a Japanese habit. In Italy the sauce is made from egg and cheese, and nothing else.

Guanciale or bacon is what usually goes into carbonara, but here we have used oysters instead. Hence the name: kakibonara, from kaki, the Japanese word for oyster.

The fragrance of Dish 1, built around pepper caviar, folded into a rich pasta sauce, makes for a combination worth looking forward to.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• Dish (Symphony No.1): about one heaped small spoonful
• Pasta: 200g
• Oysters: 200g
• Egg yolks: 3
• Cheese (grated): 60g (pecorino is the usual choice in Italy; we used Grana Padano here. If you cannot get either, use whatever grated hard cheese your local shop has. Cheese is the star of this pasta, though, so it is worth being fussy.)
• Garlic: 2 cloves
• Mushrooms of your choice: 100g (adjust the amount to taste). We used shimeji here.
• Olive oil: 4 tbsp
• White wine: 1 tbsp
• Salt: as needed
• Water for boiling the pasta
• Water: 2L
• Salt: 1 tbsp
• To finish
• Grated hard cheese: as needed

Preparation

• Sprinkle the oysters with salt (not listed in the ingredients), rub them gently, and rinse them under running water about three times.
• Grate the cheese to a powder. Keep about 10g back for finishing.
• Cut the mushrooms into easy-to-eat pieces.
• Peel the garlic and slice it.
• Separate the yolks from the eggs. How to separate yolks from whites

Method

1. In a bowl large enough to take the cooked pasta as well, mix 50g of grated cheese (keeping 10g back for finishing) with 3 egg yolks.
   
   
   
   
2. Put 4 tbsp of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic and about one heaped small spoonful of Dish (Symphony No.1) into a frying pan and set it over low heat.
   
   
3. Add 2L of water and 1 tbsp of salt to the pan for the pasta and bring it to the boil. Once boiling, start cooking 200g of pasta according to the cooking time for the pasta you are using.
   
   

   You want the pasta al dente with some bite left, so drain it slightly ahead of the stated time. Finish the pasta sauce while the water comes to the boil.

4. When the garlic starts to smell good, add 200g of oysters, the mushrooms and 1 tbsp of white wine to the frying pan, sprinkle over a little salt, and saute.
   
   

   Keep the salt light here, as you will adjust the seasoning at the end.

   
   
   
   
   
5. Once everything is cooked through, lift the oysters out onto a separate plate.
   
   

   While the pasta boils, keep the frying pan on the lowest setting or turn it off.

   
   
   
6. When half of the pasta's remaining cooking time has passed, add two ladles of the pasta water to the bowl and stir it in.
   
   
   
   
7. Next, tip everything in the frying pan into the bowl and mix it all together.
   
   
   
   
8. Drain the pasta, add it to the bowl, toss everything together and adjust the salt.
   
   
9. Plate up, arrange the oysters on top, dust with cheese and serve. Add a little extra Dish if you like.