Carbonara pasta

The King of pasta

Oct 16, 2020

I spent a semester abroad in France and lived with two Italians - Nicole and Francesco. Nicki was chill and always on a diet. Francesco was every Italian stereotype I had seen on TV growing up (Mamma-Mia!). While I was in gastronomy heaven, eating everything Grenoble had to offer, Francesco was reliably eating pasta 5 nights a week. The pasta he made most often was carbonara. I had never seen or eaten carbonara at the time and judged him silently for eating a pasta that only contained bacon and eggs. Oh how naive and stupid I was. It wasn’t until years later that I tried it and fell. in. love. HOLY DAMN IT’S SO GOOD.

We’ve been making it at home for a few years now, trying to perfect the technique. Adding raw eggs to pasta and not scrambling them is harder than it looks.

Tonight I tried Hallie Meyer’s technique (courtesy of Cooking in Quarantine) and NAILED IT. I’ve been using the two pot method for pasta for a few years now (thank you Bon Appétit), but hadn’t tried it for carbonara. Oh boy did I waste a lot of potentially amazing carbonara opportunities. No more!

Make this carbonara this weekend - you deserve it.

Tonight’s takes:

Husband: “So rich.” Me: “So, good?” Husband: Enthusiastically nodding because his mouth is already full with pasta. “Probably one of the best you’ve made.”
Helen (5 1/2 years old): “This is really delicious.”
Hector (3 years old): “Ooooo! Pasta!”

What I used:

4 egg yolks - I used to cheat and only use 2 whole eggs. Don’t do it! Yolks only.
Lots of pepper
1 cup loosely packed grated Parmesan cheese
Half a pound of bacon - I used 6 slices
1 package spaghetti (454g/1lb) - we eat more than the recommended pasta serving size in our house

What I did:

Turned salty pasta water pot on high - to get it boiling.

Turned pasta sauce pot on medium - to get it warmed up.

Put egg yolks in a bowl - one that was large enough to add about 1 cup of pasta water to.

Added lots of pepper. Lots.

Grated Parmesan.

Added bacon. I don’t put oil in my pan as the bacon is fatty enough. And it doesn’t matter if the bacon sticks a bit and breaks up as I move it around - the final pasta uses bacon bits.

Cooked the bacon to 75% done. I made sure my bacon was mostly done before I started my pasta - I never want eat over-done pasta.

Added spaghetti to boiling water. Set timer for 2-minutes less than package directions for al dente - 7 minutes.

Finished bacon. Removed it from sauce pot. Broke it into bits with my spoon.

Added about 1 cup of pasta water to sauce pot and scraped up all the brown bits.

Held it at a simmer (medium-low heat).

When pasta timer went off, added spaghetti to sauce pot and stirred vigorously. It looked a bit dry after 30 seconds of stirring, so added another 1/4 cup pasta water.

Kept stirring until spaghetti was silky looking.

Tasted a noodle to make sure it was al dente.

Turned the heat off.