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Atypical Saturday morning is waking up and spending the next three-or-four hourssplit between writing, exercising and looking at every recipe book I own tryingto work out what to cook for the rest of the weekend, usually findingeverything and nothing and cooking a fish finger sandwich for lunch and buyinga pizza for dinner, then repeating the process on Sunday morning.


Sometimes,through the indecision, I do find recipes to cook. And this is one of them.It’s from Jamie’s Italy. Carbonara plus sausages. Many dishes can be improvedwith the addition of a sausage and I figured carbonara was one of them.


Richand salty, comforting, simple and delicious; I love carbonara. I needed a beerto cut the richness, to handle the smoked pancetta and to balance the herbybanger. Avery Brown Dredge was in my head as it recently passed a year sincethe beer was brewed. I’ve still got a few bottles left so I grabbed one. Brightorange-gold, big frothy white foam, it’s just as good as it’s ever been, maybeeven better – orangey, sweet aroma followed by a Saaz spiciness, with a dry andpeppery bitterness. The sweetness balances the richness and the smoke and thewhole thing wraps together in a perfect little package. If you haven’t got ABDthen try something like Victory Prima Pils or Dogfish Head My Antonia.


Withsausages and spaghetti left over, on Sunday I made one of my favourite dishes: fry little balls of sausage, add garlic and chilli, a carton of choppedtomatoes, seasoning, fresh basil and mix with spaghetti. Easy. But I’ve neverfound a FABPOW for this one. I’ve gone down the dark lager road but I needsomething bigger, so perhaps it’s time for Schlenkerla...


Two FABPOWs in a week! I call that a successful weekend staring at recipe books.


Anote on the sausage carbonara recipe: cooking for one hungry person, I halvedthe recipe given for four and it was the right amount for me. Four sausagesbetween four people is a bit stingy, I think.



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