Appetites: The January (or February) ratio

For chef and cookbook author Amy Thielen, getting back into a healthier eating routine after the holidays doesn't mean depriving herself. Instead, she adopts something she calls "hedonism in moderation."

"That just means that I'm basically resetting my perspective," she says. "I'm taking all of my favorite foods and I'm just changing the ratio of carbs-and-meat to vegetables."

For example, if she makes potato and bacon soup, she doesn't change any of the ingredients of this rich, creamy soup. She just ladles a portion of it over an enormous mound of blanched cabbage. Same thing with a Chinese-style stir-fried pork. Thielen uses the same amount of fat and all the same spices and flavors, but she fills two-thirds of the bowl with stir-fried bok choy.

"I actually think this is something I picked up when I worked in a Chinese restaurant for a year in New York," said Thielen. The restaurant served crispy garlic chicken, steamed fish with ginger, crab and corn soup, all made by a mostly Chinese-born staff.

Thielen said the staff meals were telling of this ratio: Everyone took huge bowls of food, they always took more greens than meat.

Thielen uses this ratio in this recipe for spaghetti carbonara — the pasta dish with pancetta or bacon, parmesan and a last-minute raw egg yolk for gloss — spiked with tons of finely shredded broccoli tops, which Thielen's family calls "confetti."

Recipe: Spaghetti carbonara with broccoli confetti

By Amy Thielen
serves 4

2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 cups broccoli confetti (from 2 heads of broccoli)
10 ounces bacon, diced (3 tablespoons fat reserved)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter
2/3 pound pasta, such as spaghetti or bucatini
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt for the pasta cooking water, plus to taste for the pasta
3 ounces parmesan cheese, finely grated

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, for cooking the pasta. Whisk the egg yolks and cream together in a small bowl and set aside. Shear the tops of the broccoli with a knife (or a kitchen scissors) until you have 2 cups of loose, fine broccoli confetti.

In a wide saute pan over medium heat, cook the bacon until lightly browned at the edges. Scoop the bacon into a bowl, reserving 3 tablespoons of fat in the pan. Add the garlic and butter to the pan, and cook until the garlic sizzles, about two minutes. Add the broccoli confetti, then pour in 1/4 cup of hot pasta-cooking water into the pan to stop the cooking, and set aside.

When the water boils, salt it heavily, and add the pasta. Cook, stirring to keep it from clumping, until firm to the bite. Scoop up 1 cup pasta cooking water before draining.

Add the hot pasta to the pan with the garlic mixture and stir to combine. Add the egg mixture, and with a pair of tongs, off heat, stir the hot pasta until coated with the egg. Return the bacon to the pasta, and add the Parmesan cheese. Dribble in the reserved pasta water, just until it's loosened up. Toss to combine.

Divide into four shallow bowls and serve immediately.

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