I'm cooking carbonara this evening for some friends that have requested it, and I'm at a loss on a fun side dish. Any suggestions?

Brian Ackroyd
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3 Comments

linzarella November 30, 2011
Carbonara is rich, so something raw and/or with a hint of bitterness. Radicchio is really good right now. You could get some escarole or castelfranco or any of the mellower varieties, and do a salad with radish and anchovies, something like this: http://food52.com/recipes/13698_radish_and_escarole_salad_with_anchovy_vinaigrette. Or you could do roasted radicchio with a more bitter variety.
 
MTMitchell November 30, 2011
A pretty green salad? Roasted brussels sprouts? Herbed garlic bread? Not sure how fun these are, per se, but would probably be good with carbonara. Actually, now that I think of it, an old friend who has a killed carbonara recipe used to serve it with a raw mushroom salad. She'd slice the mushrooms really, really thinly (shaved them, basically), dressed them with lemon juice (a good amount), good olive oil, salt and pepper, and a little fresh parsley, and then shaved copious amounts of parmesan over it. It was really good, and I always thought that the earthiness of the mushrooms and the acidity of the lemon were a nice complement to the carbonara.
 
lorigoldsby November 30, 2011
Try grilled IR roasted asparagus
 
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