Ever since I can remember I have always been the biggest fan of spaghetti carbonara. There is something undeniably delicious and decadent about it, yet it is so simple to make at home that it should be a weekly staple! However, not many people actually realise that the majority of the spaghetti carbonara's that you'll find in restaurants/cafes etc are actually made incorrectly when compared to the original recipe. The traditional recipe doesn't actually contain cream, which will likely surprise a lot of people, as we consider carbonara to be this ultra-creamy dish. However, traditional carbonara's actually use eggs to thicken the sauce! For the purposes of this recipe though, I will be using the non-traditional method of adding cream, as it's so easy and works every time... no scrambled egg spaghetti here!
One of the things you have to be wary of when cooking for little ones is the salt content of your food. The general guidance is that infants less than 12 months of age should have no more than 1g of salt per day, with this increasing up to 2g for children aged 1 to 3 years. This is not a lot, especially when you are preparing food for a child under 12 months. This recipe, however, is a perfect example of how to tailor your meals for the entire family, without compromising on flavour.
When looking at this meal you realise that all of the salt content comes from only two ingredients: bacon and parmesan. Usually you could consider just doing away with these two ingredients and serve the same meal to the entire family, however, these happen to be the ingredients with the best flavours so we're not in a hurry to do that! Instead, what we're going to do is cook the bacon separately in the oven and then add this at the end, along with the parmesan, after we have dished out the baby portion. That way we keep all of the flavour and prepare a low salt baby-friendly version of this classic at the same time, with this slight tweak only taking us an extra minute to prepare... no more cooking two separate meals anymore!
If you give this recipe a go then let me know how it turns out via the comments section, or follow me on instagram (@theblwdad) and tag me in your recreations.
Happy weaning!