Spaghetti Carbonara with Blue Cheese, Asparagus and Artichokes

I love carbonara. This isn't a big secret if you've read this blog for any length of time. It's my absolute favorite pasta dish, so when I saw Jessy over at Gourmet Day to Day had a recipe for Linguine Carbonara with Blue Cheese and Artichokes I knew I had to try it. Just one problem - SP isn't a big fan of artichokes. Luckily my stepdad invited SP out for dinner recently, so I invited my mom over to share the pasta.


We both loved this. Loved it. We kept oohing and ahhing over the rich, creamy pasta, the crispy bacon, the freshness of the asparagus and the artichokes. Oh, the artichokes. So nice to see them on my plate again. I made a few slight modifications to the recipe, adding sliced onions and cutting down the blue cheese so it didn't overwhelm the other flavors, although you can add up to 1 cup if you want more blue cheese flavor. Thanks, Jessy, for a delicious spin-off to my beloved carbonara.

Kitchen Tip - Use kitchen scissors to easily cut bacon directly over the pan.

Spaghetti Carbonara with Blue Cheese, Asparagus and Artichokes
Slightly Modified from Gourmet Day to Day

1 pound spaghetti
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into thirds
8 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 large onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 8-oz cans artichokes hearts (in brine), rinsed and quartered or 2 8-oz packages frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and quartered
1/2 - 1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup half and half
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

In a large pan or dutch oven, cook cut bacon until starting to get crispy over medium-high heat. Add sliced onions and cook about 15 minutes, until tender and starting to caramelize. Add artichokes and garlic and saute for 5 minutes.

While artichokes are cooking, add pasta to boiling salted water. Add blue cheese, cream, black pepper and salt to the artichoke mixture and simmer until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.

Add the asparagus to the pasta water 3 minutes before the pasta is done. Drain and add to the sauce and toss to coat. Remove from heat.

Beat the eggs and half and half together, along with the cheese and basil. Add to pasta and toss well with tongs. Serve immediately.