Spaghetti Carbonara
In the past few weeks I’ve seen carbonara recipes all over the place and for the first time ever they started to appeal to me. Carbonara is basically bacon and eggs pasta. I’ve heard rumors that it’s Italian hangover food. I love bacon but I’m not a huge fan of eggs which is why the idea of carbonara never intrigued me. But lately? I don’t know, for reasons I can’t explain I needed to give it a go. I’m so glad I did.
Carbonara is not a recipe for people on low fat, low cholesterol diets or for people who live in permanent fear of getting sick from what they eat. The three eggs used in the sauce are not fully cooked. The recipe I used calls for heating an oven-proof serving bowl in the oven while the rest of the dish is prepared so the combination of hot pasta and hot bowl cooks the eggs just enough. I recommend using the freshest, locally grown eggs from humanely raised chickens you can find for this dish. The whole thing takes about 30 minutes start to finish. Heat up a loaf of fresh bake Italian bread along with it and serve with a salad and a simple steamed vegetable. We skipped the salad last night and inhaled the entire bowl of pasta with some leftover steamed broccoli and half a loaf of bread.
Sam, after deciding the fork was entirely too much at the pasta by the handful. He ate two and half bowls crying “More noonoos” each time his bowl was empty. Since he was eating by the handful, we refilled his bowl using spaghetti spilled on his tray and bib three or four times. Seriously, he loved the pasta. Loved it. This is the first thing he’s loved since my leftover pot pie and it took him two or three days to warm up to that. This he couldn’t get enough of from the first bite.
Spaghetti Carbonara
1/2 pound bacon, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cloves chopped garlic
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup white wine
1 pound spaghetti
3 large eggs, beaten
Salt
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley leaves (optional)
Put an ovenproof serving bowl in the oven on the lowest rack. Heat the oven and bowl to 200 degrees. Put the water for the pasta on to boil. Cook the bacon and olive oil in a 12 inch skillet until the bacon is crisp, about 10 minutes. If the water is boiling put the pasta in to cook. Add the wine to the pan and cook until the liquid is reduced, about five minutes more. In a medium sized bowl wisk together eggs, cheese and minced garlic.
When the pasta is still slightly firm (al dente) drain in a colander, first reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water. Leaving the pasta slightly wet, add it to the pan and toss it with the bacon and reduced wine. Add in the egg and toss with tongs until well combined. Transfer to warm serving bowl, add fresh parsley if using and salt and fresh ground pepper to taste and serve hot.
I loved this pasta, but I plan on modifying the recipe the next time I make it. I don’t think the bacon needs to cook in olive oil. Well, perhaps it does if you’re using pancetta or another more authentic Italian bacon, but I used locally raised cured bacon and it didn’t need any extra oil. I’ll skip the oil, drain the crisp bacon on paper towels, pour off all but a tablespoon of the bacon grease and follow the recipe as written from there.
Because it’s all I have in the house I used whole wheat spaghetti. Next time I want this I’m going to use regular spaghetti to make it more like comfort food. And if you don’t have white wine you can substitute vermouth or chicken or vegetable broth. If you use broth, add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to the egg mixture.
If you’re sketched out by the barely cooked eggs, this recipe from Emeril calls for cooking them slightly.
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December 18th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Hi Jackie!
Look, sorry to disappoint you, but…that is not carbonara.
I give you here the recipe I usually follow (look, i don’t usually weight ingredients, it’s just experience).
Ingredients:
1 lb spaghetti
0.35 lb of pork jowl without the skin (and this is the main difference from what you did, bacon is VERY different, sorry)
2 eggs and 2 yolks
a few extra-virgin olive oil
pecorino romano ( you can substitute it with mature (not too mature) sheep-milk cheese with very good results)
copious freshly ground black pepper
Ok, let’s start now! First of all you’ve got to chop into small cubes (0.3-0.5 inches) the jowl.
Brake the eggs in a bowl, and add cheese and pepper, then beat it all with a fork. You can if you want (and I advise you to do so) use for 30 seconds the bowl as a lid for the pot in which you’re cooking the pasta, keep beating the egg while you do so, it will be more creamy.
While the pasta is cooking put oil and the jowl in a pan, and let it fry lightly with a low flame so that the jowl loses as much liquid as possible.
When spaghetti are cooked drain them in a colander reserving half a cup of their water.
Add them still lightly wet to the egg, cheese and pepper mix and toss rapidly, then add the jowl and its fluids (for lack of a better term, I’m not so good in English…); toss again fastly and serve.
If you want your eggs more cooked you can toss the ingredients in the hot pot where you cooked the pasta (after you drained it, obviously =P), just make sure you take the pot off the fire before doing so.
Hope you enjoy it =D
Mauro
December 18th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
PS: With this recipe you can drink a red wine if you want, like a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo or similar
Bye