spaghetti alla carbonara
spaghetti alla carbonara
I’m actually ambivalent about Carbonara, and I find it astounding how obsessive some home cooks on social media are about this one sauce. Personally, I prefer a subtler, silkier glaze of egg sauce coating the pasta (actually the most common way the recipe used to be cooked for a good 70 years!) not the gallons of thick, barely pasteurised 'custard' that you see everywhere on social media today.
I also make my Carbonara with a mix of smoked bacon and smoked pancetta, usually not the massively fatty guanciale that the carbo-zealots worship. And I go reasonably cheesy and very peppery. And I like it.
NB If you are a glutton for punishment and want to use guanciale, leave out the bacon and pancetta and just use 100g of gunciale. It won't be the lightest meal you've ever had, but it's fair to say that the taste of good gunciale is not quite the same as bacon and pancetta. I don't think it's better or worse, it's just different.... but I still don't see what all the fuss is about...
*NB the nutrition info on this page is based on the GUANCIALE version of the recipe.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
grate the cheese
separate the egg yolks
cook the pig
toast the black pepper
make the base of the sauce
boil the pasta
combine sauce, pig and pasta
spaghetti alla carbonara
INGREDIENTS
FOR FOUR PEOPLE
75g smoked bacon
75g smoked pancetta
(or JUST 100g guanciale)
6 egg yolks
15g parmesan
45g pecorino
black pepper
PASTA
400g dry spaghetti
MANTECATURA (?)
slight to moderate
METHOD
Carbonara sits firmly in the 'trickier' sauce category. It's quite easy to overcook the sauce and end up with scrambled eggs. And if you undercook it, you risk food poisoning with eggs that haven't been cooked properly.
Begin by grating the cheese, then dry fry the pancetta. Do this on a low heat so the fat has a chance to render and form a nice big puddle at the bottom of the frying pan. As there's more fat on pancetta than most back bacon, start with the pancetta and then throw the bacon in after a few minutes, or just cook the bacon in a separate frying pan.
When the bacon's done, cut it into thin strips and set aside. When the pancetta's cooked, remove it from the pan and save the rendered fat in a small bowl. Put the water for the pasta on to boil. And heat another saucepan of water that you can use as a bain-marie. In a pasta wok, gently toast the black pepper, making sure you don’t burn it! Stop as soon as you can smell amazing perfumed pepper smell, and take it off the heat.
Begin cooking the pasta and check it regularly. Mix the yolks and cheese into a thick paste and add the (slightly cooled) rendered fat from the bacon and the toasted pepper, stirring both into the paste. Put the paste in a suitable metal bowl on the bain marie, add a small amount of pasta water to loosen it, and cook it gently, stirring all the time, until you can see the bottom of the bowl cleanly when you run a wooden spoon over it. Alternatively, use a chef’s thermometer and don’t go above 65 degrees C. With any luck your pasta will be cooked about the time the egg sauce is ready and safely pasteurised, and you can take the sauce off the bain-marie, fish the pasta out of the water and place in the Tossing Pan. Don't be in a hurry about doing this, as a few seconds of cooling will help ensure that you don't overcook the egg sauce and turn it to scrambled egg when it meets the pasta.
Add the egg sauce to the pasta (and possibly some more pasta water), add 2/3rds of the bacon, and toss well until everything is combined. Plate each portion and sprinkle with some of the bacon and pancetta that you held back, more black pepper, and pecorino.
NUTRITION per serving
KCAL: 647
Fat (g): 30.7
Sat Fat (g): 13.4
Carb (g): 74.3
Sug (g): 3.5
Fibre(g): 3.1
Prot (g): 23.3
Salt (g): 1.25
