Operation Sourdough Failure

Well, my sourdough bread experiment was a failure. I don't know what went wrong, but I suspect in was a) not the right flour to water ratio, b) not using the starter at it's peak (or right before it's peak), c) it was raining the whole day.

Everyone tells you not to use baker's yeast when making sourdough, but heresy of all heresies, I believe that if I had I would've had a nice loaf. Instead, I got this doorstop.


Needs Viagra.

The silver lining: it'll make nice breadcrumbs.

I still have a great starter and yesterday I made sourdough pancakes that were very good, lots of flavor. In fact, I think all pancakes should be made using sourdough starter. All too often, pancakes are boring vehicles for lots of butter and maple syrup. Sourdough pancakes don't need butter or maple syrup, although it sure doesn't hurt!

Not everything was a failure last night. One thing that came out really good was my spaghetti alla carbonara. No, this is not Tom Cruise's carbonara. Mine has black pepper in it, which many believe the carbon in carbonara comes from.

Spaghetti Alla Kevinara


Not low Carb-onara.

1 package (or pound) of thick spaghetti
6-7 strips of bacon (what we call bacon, others call streaky bacon)
1 cup of grated parmigiano regiano (or other hard grating cheese)
2 big-ass cloves garlic, minced
half an onion (yellow), diced
1 tablespoon (or more) freshly grated black pepper
1/4 cup italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
Fleur de Sel, or other course finishing salt
3 eggs, beaten

1. Boil your water in a big ol' pot. Add some regular salt to the water. When it comes to a boil, turn off the burner. Basically, this is how we cut down our pasta cooking time so that everything comes together at the same time.
2. Meanwhile, put your bacon in a cold pan and turn the heat up to medium.
3. While the bacon is cooking, chop the parsley, the onions, the garlic, grate the pepper and cheese. Beat the eggs.
4. When the bacon is crisp, remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain. When cool, chop roughly.
5. Add onions to the bacon fat and brown on medium high. Shortly after adding the onions, add the garlic.
6. Mix the cheese and pepper into the beaten eggs.
7. Bring pasta water to a boil, then add the spaghetti. Cook til al dente. When ready, pour some of the hot water into a serving bowl (this is just to heat it up). Drain the pasta.
8. Dump the water out of the serving bowl, then dump the pasta in. Add the onions/bacon grease and mix into the pasta, then add the egg mixture and stir until it makes a nice sauce. Add the bacon, then the parsley.
9. Plate it and sprinkle conservatively with the course salt.
10. Fret over sourdough failure. Scold your starter and promise to remove from will.


Everything goes better with bacon grease.

k.