RECIPE: Carbonara

 Carbonara!

I have it on good authority, from literally every Italian I have ever asked the question of (or taken to a UK based pasta restaurant for that matter!) Italian Carbonara sauce should NOT contain cream, milk, or any of the stuff that supermarkets put in the suspiciously chalk-white ‘carbonara’ sauce. 

In fact it should have four ingredients: pasta, eggs, parmigiano cheese, bacon

I had absolutely no idea about this, I turned my nose up at carbonara as a child because I didn’t like creamy sauces (I was a real problem eater, maybe because I didn’t know what went into food?) I didn’t like eggs, I didn’t like… well you get the idea.)

It was actually the wonderful folks over at Two Chubby Cubs that opened my eyes to a real Carbonara. When I was trying to lose weight by sticking to the Slimming World diet. I swear I wouldn’t have even been able to even start that program without their brilliant blog, and I did lose a little weight as a result, but you can’t diet forever!

This is not their recipe, largely because I couldn’t stop adding tasty fattening things to it, and also because I’ve been cooking it so long from memory I have no idea if it’s even close anymore. 

I also break the rules and use more ingredients than a proper Nona-made dish, but then I don’t claim to be Italian or be any kind of authority on the cooking!

No scrambled eggs here! It’s as quick as it takes to boil the pasta, and you can adapt it into other dishes like Cacio e Pepe

Penne Carbonara 

(For 2 hungry people - doesn’t reheat well, so half everything and do 2x yolk and 1xwhole egg for 1 person)

Ingredients:

• 300g dry penne* pasta (if you use wholemeal you’ll need to adjust cooking times)

• 5 free range hens eggs 

(4 as yolks, 1 whole, you can buy pre-separated eggs if they sell those local to you, but I recommend learning how to separate eggs manually it’s a brilliant basic skill to learn!)

• 65g  Italian Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese

(Buy a wedge, grate it yourself, use the smallest side of your grater or a microplain. Whatever they put in the pre-grated stuff makes it stay grainy. You can use any other Italian hard cheese, but it won’t taste the same!)

• 200g Italian Cubetti Di Pancetta (you can chop up British (danish) back bacon, or even the streaky stuff, but you make Nonas cry)

• 1 heaped tsp ground black pepper (reduce this if you don’t like it peppery)

• Pinch of salt for the pasta

• 2 cloves of garlic - minced/grated, (about 1 tsp lazy garlic puree)

• ½ tsp Dried italian herbs (oregano, basil, etc… not strictly supposed to be in a carbonara, but makes the flavours pop)

* you can use whatever shape pasta you have**, but you’ll want something that holds the creamy sauce! Penne, Tagliatelle, and Spaghetti/linguine are traditional

** maybe not lasagna!

Equipment:

• Large saucepan with enough boiling water to cook the pasta+

• Small non-stick frying pan (for the pancetta)

• flexible rubber/plastic spatula

• small plastic balloon whisk 

• Pasta spoon/large serving spoon

• 1x bowl for egg whites (save these, I’ll have a recipe for a killer cheat’s Frittata later!)

• 1x large mixing bowl

• 1x coffee mug (for retaining starchy water… a must!)

Method:

• In the saucepan, weigh out your pasta, make a note of the cooking time (10-13 minutes usually) Boil enough water to cover the pasta +5cm extra depth - you’re going to want to have at least a mug of water left after the pasta is cooked. Get the pan boiling (without the pasta!) or stick the kettle on (make a cuppa while you’re at it?) 

• Get the pancetta into a small frying pan and on a medium high - high heat ( 7 or 8/10) you won’t need extra oil, it comes with its own - once it’s crispy fried how you like it and the fats rendered off, set it aside (you can skim the oil off its too much, but its all flavour, you know your diet)

• Add a splash of olive oil to the pasta (it stops it sticking!) and a good pinch of salt, get the boiling water in the pan and get the pasta cooking. 

• Finely grate 65g of parmigiano into your mixing bowl, add the herbs, pepper, and garlic. Give it a mix with a (dry!) spatula just to keep it even.

• Separate 4 egg yolks (learn the trick here!), add them to the mixing bowl, the whites can be saved in the smaller bowl. Add one whole egg.

• Beat the ever loving heck out of the lot to create a thick, gloopy, peppery mess… trust me, it’ll all come good! (This is still raw egg - so no tasting yet, and practice good hygiene)

• Once the pasta is boiled, carefully scoop out about a mug-full of the starchy white pasta water and put to one side

• Drain the rest of the water off the pasta (use a wire sieve or colander) and then leave it in the pan for 2 minutes on a cool surface, steaming and cooling just a little. 

• You can add the pancetta and as much oil as you kept to the pasta here. 

• With a rubber spatula, scrape out all the yummy sauce onto the pasta/pancetta and combine - the residual heat of the pasta will cook the egg, but we let it cool off just long enough to not scramble it!

• Mix until everything is evenly coated in sauce, don’t worry if it’s too thick and sticky!

• Gradually, a splash at a time, add the starchy water from your mug, stir each time. Until the sauce is smooth and shiny. (You can do this after you’ve served up in bowls if your diners like different style sauce)

Serve into broad shallow bowls with more cheese/fresh pepper if you fancy - if you nuke the empty bowls in the microwave for 1min they’ll keep the pasta warm, since we had to cool it a little for the sake of the sauce`