Topic: Pasta Carbonara

[Nichi]

This isn't that unusual a recipe, but I just made and tried it for the first time: twas yummy.

In the traditional version, pecorino cheese is added as well as the parmesan, and "pancetta"
"pancetta" is used instead of bacon. But in this area, "pancetta" is prohibitively expensive, and "pecorino" is impossible to find in the standard supermarkets. So I substituted bacon for pancetta, and just did without the pecorino.

Fry up 6 strips of bacon so that they are crispy. Drain well on paper towels.
Boil a lb of pasta (I used linguine, but spaghetti or fettucine will do -- probably, any pasta will do.)
Use the bacon grease to saute one and half tablespoons of diced onion (or shallot) - add 2 tablespoons butter .
Season the onion with garlic salt.
In a large bowl, beat together 2 eggs, 3 splashes of heavy cream, and a cup of grated parmesan
When the pasta has finished cooking and been drained, save a few tablespoons of the pasta water.

Combine all of the above in the large bowl - the eggs/cream/parmesan mixture, the onions, the pasta, the bacon grease. Stir everything well, and add the tablespoons of pasta water to loosen it up a bit.

Garnish servings with grated parmesan and crumbled up bacon.

It was rich and good - real comfort food.

[Nichi]

Somewhere along the line I've seen it suggested to add feta in lieu of the pecorino, but the end product is already plenty creamy and salty!  (I love feta, but the bacon grease provides plenty of saltiness!)

[Muffin]

Fry up 6 strips of bacon so that they are crispy. Drain well on paper towels.

Wut?! 

Boil a lb of pasta (I used linguine, but spaghetti or fettucine will do -- probably, any pasta will do.)

Well, not really. Carbonara is usually made with spaghetti or rigatoni. Everything else just looks funny. Don't ever use fettuccine.

Use the bacon grease to saute one and half tablespoons of diced onion (or shallot) - add 2 tablespoons butter .
Season the onion with garlic salt.
In a large bowl, beat together 2 eggs, 3 splashes of heavy cream, and a cup of grated parmesan
When the pasta has finished cooking and been drained, save a few tablespoons of the pasta water.

You do not put onion on the carbonara. Or garlic salt?? Never ever.
And the heavy cream? Blasphemy!



Here's how I learnt to do the carbonara.

Boil the pasta, I usually do it with rigatoni, the eggs will stick to it better. The lines on the sides are actually designed for this.
In the mean time cut the pancetta, or bacon (should be smoked) in cubes, can be longer(like small bricks?). Fry them. You should use lean bacon with little fat, just enough for the bacon to fry in it's own fat, but there's nothing to dry off.
Beat up the eggs with parmesan.
Just a couple of second before the pasta is over take off the pan with pancetta from the fire.
Drain the pasta and pour it over the bacon, then pour over the eggs. Stir everything in the pan until the egg-cream is solidish. Use just the heat of the bacon and the pasta. If you find it too soft then put back a couple of seconds over the fire.

Garnish with parmesan and black pepper. To make it look like it's carbonated.

Not to take anything away from your recipe, but you're not talking about the italian carbonara. I ate a couple of time this thing you describe in restaurants outside of italy. If you happen to be in Italy, especially in Rome, saying that you use cream for carbonara can get you in trouble.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonara

However, it's a very interesting coincidence because tonight I was just planning to prepare this for myself.
Om non nom. 

[Nichi]

Thanks for straightening me out! Next time I make it, I'll use your methods - they sound delicious!

[Nichi]

(Hey Rudi, keep those Italian recipes coming! Yum yum!)

[Muffin]

Thanks for straightening me out! Next time I make it, I'll use your methods - they sound delicious!

If you find the right timing and temperature of the pasta and bacon you will see that it will be just as creamy as when you use cream. But without the cream. All the goodness of the eggs, bacon and cheese.
It's an extremely simple food with few ingredients, but tricky to prepare it correctly.

[Muffin]

(Hey Rudi, keep those Italian recipes coming! Yum yum!)

I'm making pizza one of these days. It's a first for me so I'm pretty excited and worry about it.
I only know how it's supposed to be.
One day I'll clear up some of the misconceptions about pizza too.
Right now only one word comes to mind. Hawaii pizza - bleh.

[Nichi]

If you find the right timing and temperature of the pasta and bacon you will see that it will be just as creamy as when you use cream. But without the cream. All the goodness of the eggs, bacon and cheese.
It's an extremely simple food with few ingredients, but tricky to prepare it correctly.

Right ... and you did an excellent job describing it!

(Don't know what I made exactly ... but it was good. And the heat of the grease was central. Actually, I put all the drained pasta in the pan where I fried the bacon, and put it all -- the eggs and cheese (and blasphemous cream) -- in the big bowl after blending the grease of the bacon - simply because I didn't have enough room in the pan to get everything well-stirred.  Heheh - I forgot pepper --- but now I know: "pepper" is the "carbonara" in "carbonara"! Thanks!)

[Nichi]

Are you going to make your own pizza dough? Can't wait to hear about it.

[Muffin]

*click for larger image

You will have to excuse me for the not so good picture quality. I was kind of in a hurry, the carbonara has to be eaten as soon as it leaves the pan.
Unfortunately I have this stupid fine grained pepper, it's like dust. Not the best stuff over. Use less refined pepper, somewhere in the middle between dust and the raw pepper balls.
For the bacon I had to use those thin slices,  it's really hard to find the original pancetta or guanciale.
But I've cut them into thin slices on the shorter end, and they twirled up and some look almost like cubes

[Nichi]

It looks really good! That's a cheerful bowl you're using too!

I keep meaning to get a new pepper mill ... the one I had bit the dust.

[Angela]

Hey Rudi ... since I was able to cook, about 10 or 11 yrs. old, I've been making a dish, usually for breakfast or brunch, which I call a spaghetti omelet. I take left over spaghetti, a little bit of marinara and saute it in a skillet. (sometimes I add bell peppers and onions)

Then I whip up some eggs and pour the mixture over the spaghetti, or I make it sometimes more of an omelet style, cooking the omelet, then placing the sauteed spaghetti mixture inside with some mozzarella or provolone, fold it over. I then put a little marinara on top, sometimes more cheese and sprinkle with Parmesan or Romano.

Now ... my family used to make fun of me and tell me how weird I was ... I was always concocting odd mixtures.

Then one day, a friend told me they had been to Italy, went to breakfast and there it was on a menu ... "Spaghetti Omelet".  I'm not sure if my friend was teasing me, or not 

Do they really serve this in Italy?

[Muffin]

Never heard of it, but what you describe seems like on the opposite end of the carbonara. Lots of eggs and little pasta.
I might try it one day.

You're friends must have been somewhere in the north of Italy, maybe close to the german border.
Maybe they went to the hotel's restaurant - these usually offer international menus for their visitors. But these don't count as "italian experience".
Because in Rome, and around, there are exactly 0 restaurants open in the morning. You have breakfast in bars, where they serve coffee and cornetto.



Anything else, even just two cornettos are considered a heavy meal and people would complain for the rest of the morning of how much they ate.

[Nichi]

Hey Rudi, is that light breakfast because it's traditional to eat a late dinner, like between 8-10pm?  My mother and John lived in Livorno for a few years, and that's how they said it was there.

[Angela]

Mmmm ... looks good