Vatican City | Fettuccine alla Papalina

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE I BASED MINE ON

Yes, the bowl is a mess. The kitchen was chaotic when I was attempting to plate the meal and take a pic. The only person who takes less appetizing photos of food than I do is Martha Stewart.

Given the size and location of Vatican City, most of my results were just Italian dishes. Italian food is amazing so there were plenty of Italian dishes to choose from but fettuccine alla Papalina (fettuccine for the Pope) seemed the most appropriate dish for Vatican City.

It is similar to carbonara but adds onion to the sauce and uses ham or prosciutto instead of guanciale. Most recipes also use 3-4 eggs, which gave me pause since I can’t really eat eggs anymore. If it is one egg spread across an entire batch of baked goods, I’m usually okay. But several eggs stirred into a sauce? No can do.

I had to adapt the linked recipe to make it one that I can eat. I did so after reading on a few sites that not everyone makes it with eggs, or peas, or they use tagliatelle instead of fettuccine. So, it seems there’s some wiggle room when it comes to the ingredients. I’m sure it is richer and silkier with the eggs and, oh, how I wish I could make it that way but you work with what you’ve got and what you can eat. (I miss eggs so much!) Essentially, I just used more heavy cream and more Parmesan to replace the eggs. (And thanked the Universe for LactoJoy, again.)

I wasn’t sure the local grocery store would have cubed prosciutto so I assumed that I’d end up making it with ham. But they did have cubed prosciutto and the cashier told me it was really good stuff! It was expensive but I figured this was a once in a lifetime dish for me so I’d just go for it.

It was easy to make. Cook the pasta like normal. Sauté a few things, stir in the cream, stir in the cheese, mix everything together and enjoy!

How did it turn out?

Oh, my word, this was so rich and delicious, I do not have the vocabulary to describe the richness of the sauce. The recipes says peas are optional but I think they add a lovely pop of freshness to the sauce.

Would I make it again?

As amazing as it was, I will not make it again. I enjoyed it, I’m glad I tried it, and I would recommend that everyone try it, once in their lifetime, but it was a lot for me (Brian refused to try it even though he likes everything in it.) and required a lot of LactoJoy. The dish is wonderful; it just isn’t a fit for my life.