Spaghetti alla Carbonara

If you can’t tell already, I l.o.v.e pasta dishes. It’s almost all I post when I comes to food. I have actually never had a Carbonara pasta before and making it myself for the first time was very scary.

If you don’t already know, the main thing about a carbonara pasta is that it’s made with an egg and cheese mixture. The key is to not have scrambled eggs in your pasta which is harder than you think. I attempted to make carbonara the night before and failed by a teeny tiny bit. I had the slightest bit of scrambled egg in my dish. It wasn’t horrible but I wanted to prefect it of course before I felt confident about writing this blog post. I did a second attempt the next day for lunch and it turned out perfectly…well from my standards and for the fact I have never had a carbonara at a restaurant made by proper cooks or chefs and have nothing to compare it to. I am proud of it and it’s actually much easier than you may think it is. It also only has 5 ingredients!

I loved this pasta! Now that I know how to make it it’ll be one of my go-to dishes. Although loaded with fat and oils it’s still a creamy light pasta dish. It’s salty, it’s chewy, and it’s a classic.

ingredients

Yield: 4 servings

Spaghetti - 3 cups - Shit just eye ball it lol…if you have extra cooked pasta then save it for another time.

Cured pork - 1 cup - Feel free to add more if you like a meaty pasta. I used pancetta although the traditional meat to use is guanciale.

Hard cheese - 1 cup + a little extra for garnish - I used parmigiano-reggiano although you can also use pecorino romano or a combination of the two.

Freshly ground black pepper

Eggs - 2 with whites and 2 just yolks

Olive oil - optional

Directions

Just a heads up…you need to act fast and carful when making this dish. It is simple but be cautious and read my TIPS.

Have a large pot of water ready to boil. There is no need to salt the water because the pork and cheese in this dish will make it salty enough but I mean you do you boo boo and add salt if you want! I personally added a little bit of pink Himalayan salt to my water.

While you wait for your pasta water to boil, cut up your cured pork. Dice your cured pork into cubes. If you have a slab of pork, slice ¼ inch slices and then dice them. I actually got my pancetta pre-diced which is clutch and saves a lot of time in the kitchen. If you’re working with thick cut bacon, cut it into ¼ inch pieces.

Tip: Guanciale is the traditional pork type to use in this dish but I heard it’s hard to find. I decided to go with pancetta because I was more familiar with this pork. You could also use thick cut bacon. The key is to try to use fatty pork.

Once your water is at a boil, place your spaghetti in and it’s go time baby. My spaghetti package says it takes 10 minutes to become al dente. So I set my timer for 10 minutes and get going on the pork.

In a medium sized non-stick pan over medium/high heat, drizzle olive oil (optional) and place your cured pork in the pan right away. Occasionally stir around your pork to ensure even cooking. You want your pork to have a nice golden colour to it and not burnt.

Tip: I work on a gas stove top and so things tend to heat up and cook faster. Be cautious and know your stove top. The timing in this recipe worked for me so you may need to practice to get the timing right. Everything worked around the 10 minutes it took to cook the pasta.

While your pork is cooking, take a minute to make your egg and cheese mixture. In a bowl, crack 2 eggs with the whites and 2 eggs with just the yolk. Add in your grated hard cheese and beat together with a fork. Season with freshly ground black pepper to your liking and set that bowl aside for now.

Back to your pork, once you hit that nice golden colour, turn the heat off and let it sit. Add a scoop and a bit of pasta water to the pork and let that sit while your spaghetti finishes cooking.

Tip: Before your pasta finished cooking, keep a little more pasta water off to the side just in case you need it later on.

Once your spaghetti is done, take the pasta straight from the water to the pan with the pork. Toss your pasta with that gorgeous pork and the oils that came from it. Coat your pasta the best you can with the oil in the pan. While still tossing, gradually add in your egg and cheese mixture. This is where you’ll see if you’re making scrambled eggs or not! Continue pouring and tossing and you should end up with a glorious creamy sauce. If you find it too thick, add in more pasta water. Although filled with oil and fat, it’s feels like a very light dish.

Tip: I found that having the pork pan set off to the side for a few minutes while the pasta was just finishing in it’s water bath was a good trick. Also tossing the pasta in the pork, oil, water pan helped a lot. During my first attempt, my eggs did scramble a little bit and I believe it was because my pork pan was too hot. 1. The pork and oil in that pan was too hot. It didn’t let it sit for a few minutes. 2. My pasta was too hot. I didn’t toss it in the pork and oil after transfer. Tossing it kind of airs it out for a few seconds. You don’t want to work too fast but you also don’t want to work too slow.

Plate immediately and top it off with even more grated cheese and freshly ground pepper.