Roasted garlic carbonara, Ada Parellada's recipe

Garlic is an extraordinary ingredient. For this reason, the chef at the Semproniana restaurant revisits the Italian carbonara recipe, but makes a version with roasted garlic.

Ingredients for the confit garlic

• 1 head of garlic
• 150 ml of olive oil
• A teaspoon of Mediterranean herbs
• Salt

Ingredients for carbonara

• 300 g of spaghetti
• Confit garlic
• 1 tablespoon of the oil from confit garlic
• 50 g of butter at room temperature
• 3 egg yolks
• 150 g of grated parmesan cheese
• 100 g of creamy cheese, pecorino type (I used the Ferrer from Navàs)
• A pinch of chili flakes
• A small bunch of basil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Water to cook the pasta

The step-by-step recipe

• We make the confit garlic. In an oven-safe container, we place the peeled garlic, salt, and Mediterranean herbs. We cover with the oil and bake in the oven at 150 ºC for 30 minutes. If the garlic is not yet soft, we leave it for ten more minutes. It needs to be soft but not take on any color.
• In a large bowl, mash the confit garlic with a tablespoon of the garlic oil. Add the butter and the egg yolks and make a paste. Now add the Parmesan, the Pecorino (Ferrer de Navàs), and the chili. Mix until it is a well-integrated paste.
• We boil the spaghetti. We add a couple of ladles of the pasta boiling water to the previous mixture. We whisk it well until it becomes a cream and, finally, we add the spaghetti and whisk vigorously so that they integrate and become well coated in the cream.
• We serve it immediately with freshly ground pepper, more grated pecorino, and with the basil torn by hand.