You don't expect to find a pasta dish that includes potatoes. For good reason too, because who needs to add more starch to a plate of starch? But then the dish lands on the table and you see that those potatoes are wispy little matchsticks, flash fried to a sunny golden brown and arranged like a crown of thorns around the fettucine noodles. More than a garnish, the crispy spuds supply some much-appreciated texture in an otherwise texture-less dish.
But that's just one delicious facet of the pasta carbonara that chef Eddie Zalar prepares at Nora, his one-year-old bistro in Little Italy. That crunch of the potato is set against the gentle resistance of housemade noodles. Then there's the requisite creaminess, provided by the oozing yolk of a perfectly poached egg. A grating of cured egg yolk offers a salty kick of umami.
Source: http://www.clevescene.com/
