The Yum Yum Factor

Artichokes presented like bouquets of beautiful flowers were everywhere, including IN my belly I know I might be making enemies when I say that the restaurant food in Paris was, on the whole, often underwhelming, but I also know I am not alone in that opinion. Although we did enjoy a few great meals, the fact that my restaurant list from our three day side trip to Rome is longer than the list I shared after 7 days in Paris is telling. Where, in Paris, I felt we had to work to find a great meal and really travel to specific restaurants, in Rome we would have had to work to find bad food. In Rome, we did not eat ANYTHING that was not, at the very least, very good. From the more formal dinners right down to the sandwiches shared from little shops along the street, we ate with gusto for three solid days. The gelato made my heart sing, all three plates of my pasta vongole ranged from really good to OMG, the pizzas were thin crusted, fresh and delicious, the wine was generous (see m...

So, we just got back from a trip to Paris and Rome and my head is so full of recipes that I want to replicate that I almost don't know where to start. Keep any eye for all of my upcoming posts about the trip so I can share all of the great things we ate and the fun stuff we did, but for now, here is my first recipe inspired by our travels. I bet this guy could use a good carbonara You can't go to Rome and not binge on carbonara and even though that is exactly what we did,  here we are, needing more. We make carbonara all the time and I can't believe that I haven't used the Instant Pot to cook the pasta all this time. I am the first person to lecture about adapting EVERYTHING to the pressure cooker, whether it's suited to it or not, but because this dish relies on the starchy pasta cooking water,  it makes even more sense to cook the pasta in the pressure cooker. When you pressure cook pasta, you are always left with this thick, starchy water...