Pasta Alla Carbonara
From ethan 14 years ago
- 15 minutes to make
- Serves 4
The name means "coal miner's wife's pasta." It's my wife's favorite dish! Get the best parmasean you can... it's a major flavor in the the dish and it's worth splurging a bit. I've certainly made it with the powered parmasean that comes in the cylinderical box, but getting something better makes a big difference. Read more I usually make it with pancetta, but it's good with bacon, too. The bacon in the photo is uncured so it didn't crisp up as much as cured bacon would--my preference is for that crispiness. If you like the looks of this recipe, you can check out my other cooking adventures at http://whatweateforsupper.blogspot.com See less
Ingredients
- 1 lb dried pasta (we like corkscrew type pasta) shopping list
- 1/2 lb pancetta or thick-sliced bacon shopping list
- 3-4 garlic cloves crushed, minced, or sliced shopping list
- 3 eggs at room temperature shopping list
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup grated parmesan shopping list
- 1 to 2 tablespoons half-and-half (optional) shopping list
- Lots of coarsely ground black pepper shopping list
How to make it
- Cook the pasta. While it's cooking, cut the pancetta (or bacon) into 1/2" slices and fry it until crisp. Pour off most of the fat (retaining about 1 tablespoon in the pan with the bacon).
- Whisk the eggs together.
- When the pasta is almost done, heat up the pancetta/bacon again and add the garlic. Cook until the garlic is fragrant and done.
- Drain the pasta. Working quickly, pour the pasta back into the pot it was boiled in. Stir in the eggs quickly followed by the half-and-half. Stir in the cheese and pancetta. The heat from the pasta and the pan will cook the eggs. The goal is to have them not raw, but not the texture of scrambled eggs either.
- Finish by adding lots of fresh, coarsely ground black pepper. The pepper is an important part of the dish and should definitely be noticeably present to the taste. The photograph shows how peppery it can be (though perhaps that was slightly too much pepper).
- Green peas are a standard optional ingredient. I haven't tried it, but if the dish feels a little too light on vegetables you could try adding a 1/2 cup frozen peas to the last minute or two of the pasta's cooking time.
- If you like the looks of this recipe, you can find more at our blog http://whatweateforsupper.blogspot.com
Bacon
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Adding the pepper
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People Who Like This Dish 3
- turtle66 Sacramento, CA
- mbeards2 Omaha, NE
- crazeecndn Edmonton, CA
- ethan New York, NY
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turtle66
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