Carbonara
Carbonara
Simple Italian, but ingredients matter. And so does love and tenderness. Please do not skip the note of the warming bowl. If you mix this in the pot you cooked the noodles in without cooling it down, you will scramble the damn eggs. They should be silky and smooth. Not chunky like me.
Ingredients
- 6 Eggs (3 whole, 3 yolks)
- .5 cup Pecorino Romano
- .5 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
- 4-5 oz Guanciale (Pancetta as sub) (Do not resort to bacon)
- 1 lb Bucatini (use spaghetti if you want, but it's not as good)
- Olive Oil
- Salt/Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- Start a pot of salted water on the stove. Let the eggs get closer to room temp if possible. Whisk eggs and yolks together, add as much fresh ground black pepper as you need. More is better, less is wrong, but you do you.
- Add pasta to water. Cook Al dente, which might take a bit longer as its a more dense pasta. Heat a frying pan to medium high heat.
- Chop and sizzle guanciale till browned and cooked – just a few minutes. Leave in pan with the grease. In the meantime, fill a mixing bowl with tap hot water for the final prep.
- Strain bucatini, saving a cup of pasta water. Dump the hot water out of the mixing bowl and combine the pasta and egg/cheese mixture, along with the pan grease in the warmed bowl, using a little pasta water to smooth it out if needed.
- Garnish with guanciale, parsley, a little more pepper, and as much cheese as your heart desires. Cover it. Treat yourself.
Notes
There can be a lot to contest with this, and I am sure your grandmother’s recipe is absolutely incredible. The recipe is a guideline. You want no egg whites? Fine, that’s all good. Less eggs in total? Go for it. If you don’t want to use all the grease from the pork, don’t! I just do not recommend stirring the guanciale into the pasta as it likes to settle out in the bottom. Keeping it as a topper gives more visual appeal to the dish.
But AGAIN, I really must stress the importance of the warmed bowl over mixing in the pot like you might with noodles and gravy. This is an inexpensive but elegant dish. Be nice to it.
