[CRussel]

dreams asked me to add this recipe to this thread, which I hadn't even realized was here. Though now that I think about it, of course it is!

Spaghetti alla Carbonnara
Serves 2

2 oz extra-virgin olive oil
2-4 oz bacon and/or pancetta and/or guanciale combination, sliced into lardons
4 oz dry white wine
1 extra large egg + 1 egg yolk
1 oz (30g) finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano
½ oz (15g) finely grated Pecorino Romano
2 small garlic cloves, pressed through garlic press or minced to paste
½ Lb (225g) dry spaghetti
1 scant teaspoon Sea Salt
Salt for pasta water.

Before you start:

• Set oven to 250 F(120 C)
• Put water for pasta on to start heating to boil.
• Assemble and measure all ingredients. (mise en place)

Now, step lively. Things happen quickly with the recipe:

1. Place large Pyrex bowl in oven.
2. Cook bacon/pancetta/guanciale in 1 Tbls of olive oil until crisp and place on paper towels to dry. Reserve 2 Tbls of rendered fat in pan.
3. Add sufficient salt to boiling water to cook pasta, and add the pasta.
4. Set timer on pasta for 8 minutes
5. Beat cheese and eggs together in a bowl and set aside
6. In pan with pork fat, add white wine and rest of olive oil. Reduce wine by 1/2. (if it starts to over-reduce, add water from the cooking pasta. The starch in the water will help bind the sauce together.)
7. At 8 minutes, remove bowl from oven to work surface and spread garlic around bowl. (This blooms the garlic and takes the "bite" off it.)
8. Drain pasta briefly, saving a cup of pasta water.
9. Add pasta to bowl. Add egg mixture and mix with tongs, adding additional pasta water as necessary to create sauce.
10. Add wine/oil mixture, add cooked pork, grind fresh black pepper over and mix thoroughly with tongs. Taste and sprinkle with sea salt as necessary.
11. Serve immediately.

The only cooking in this recipe is the pasta and the pork. The sauce is "cooked" from the heat of the warm bowl and the warm pasta. Just enough to thicken and set the egg/cheese mixture without any risk of curdling. Adjust the thickness of the sauce by adding pasta cooking water if the sauce gets to get too thick.

There is no dairy in this recipe at all, and the flavour profile can be adjusted quite a bit by controlling the mix of cured pork, and the mix of cheese. My personal preference is for 2/1 Parmigiano to Romano, and 1/1 dry cured bacon to guanciale, but it is also good with all Parmigiano and all pancetta or all bacon.

Finally, a comment on ingredients. There are only a few ingredients in this recipe, so the quality of every one is critical. If you use good cheese and good cured pork products, you'll have a delicious and impressive dish. Skimp on these, and the result will be boring at best.