wake wakey eggs and bakey
I’ve felt unnecessarily stressed this past week. I don’t know why. Unfortunately I have the natural ability to stress myself into a silly for no apparent reason. Excellent quality. With stress comes no sleep, which makes me even more batty and irritable.
Thankfully my nerves have calmed, and I’d like to think it had something to do with Wednesday night’s dinner. With a big group to feed, I decided to make spaghetti alla carbonara, quite possibly my favorite pasta dish. According to the all mighty Wikipedia, the dish was supposedly first recorded as a Roman dish, shortly after WWII. At the time, many Italians were eating eggs and bacon supplied by US troops, and the combination of these ingredients with pasta was a natural outgrowth. Others argue that the dish was first made as a hearty meal for Italian charcoal workers, since the word carbonara is derived from the Italian word for charcoal- carbone.
History lessons aside, this dish is just so comfortingly good. Yes yes eggs and pasta and bacon all taste wonderful together. But it goes beyond that. It’s this unique sauce the raw eggs, freshly cracked pepper, and cheese make when mixed with the hot pasta. No doubt, this is a rich dish, but it doesn’t carry the weight of something like an alfredo.
I have made Carbonara more times than I can remember, and have experimented with many different versions. Though each recipe varies slightly- they all maintain the same staple ingredients: pasta (usually spaghetti), eggs, pecorino or parmesan, pancetta/ bacon, egg, and black pepper. After all the ones I’ve tried, I’ve settled on an adaptation of Tyler Florence’s version, because he literally cooks the pasta in the pancetta fat. Tyler- well done.
Spaghetti alla Carbonara adapted from Tyler Florence’s Spaghetti alla Carbonara
1 lb. spaghetti (or linguine- I actually prefer that noodle)
4 oz pancetta or 4 slices of slab bacon, diced
4 good sized garlic cloves, minced
2 large eggs, and one egg yolk
4 T heavy cream
1 cup freshly ground parm
handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 t salt
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When you have just 7 minutes or so left in your cooking process, drop your pasta. Do not do it any earlier! The key to this dish is having the pasta very hot so it cooks the raw egg and cheese mixture. Thus all your prep work must be done when the pasta is done. The table should even be set.
With your water set to boil, place your diced meat in a large frying pan and cook on medium heat, until slightly crispy. Just before it finishes, add your minced garlic and cook for one minute. At this point, if you feel there is too much fat in the pan, feel free to remove a few tablespoons (depending on the type of meat you use, some may produce more fat than others- a few tablespoons is all that’s needed to coat the pasta).
Beat the eggs and cream together. Add in the grated parm, 10 grates of black pepper, and the salt, stir to combine. It will be lumpy.
Just before the pasta is al dente (roughly 7 minutes), drain your pasta and dump it into the frying pan. Toss with the cooked meat and garlic over medium low heat for one minute. Next pour in your egg mixture and toss very quickly to combine, adding the chopped parsley once it has come together. Serve immediately with grated parm on the side.
I like to pair carbonara with a light salad in order to cut back on some of the richness of the meal, and a medium bodied red. I tried a new wine for the dinner party- a recommendation from one of the overly friendly workers at Trader Joe’s. I shouldn’t really complain though as the wine was really good, especially considering it was jut $4.99! This Sicilian Nero d’Avola stands up nicely to a hearty pasta.
I’m usually not a pushy person, but you sersiouly need to make this dish- don’t worry about the raw eggs, embrace the bacon fat, and be ready for a nice deep sleep after dinner!
