Ingredients:
- 1 pound dry spaghetti
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 ounces pancetta or guanciale (pork cheek) or slab bacon if not available, cubed or sliced into small strips
- 4 garlic cloves, (original recipe states finely chopped but I prefer whole cloves so they don't burn)
- 2-3 large eggs (same number of eggs as people eating + one egg yolk to give a better collor)
- 1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano (or Parmigiano-Reggiano) plus more for serving
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Start to Prepare the sauce while bringing the salted water to a boil and then add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian "al dente.") Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to use in the sauce if you wish.
It is very important that the pasta is NOT too hot when adding the egg mixture, so that the heat of the pasta partially cooks the raw eggs in the sauce.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium flame. Add the pancetta and saute for about 3 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute for less than 1 minute to soften.
Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble (this is done off the heat to ensure this does not happen.) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. Season the carbonara with several turns of freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt. Mound the spaghetti carbonara into warm serving bowls and garnish with chopped parsley. Pass more cheese around the table.
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