Spaghetti Carbonara

Pin It

Carbonara is one of my favorite pastas ever— likely because its main ingredients are bacon, cheese, egg, and pasta… how could it be bad??? However, many recipes add cream and veggies and it quickly turns into an alfredo sauce. Blech. This recipe is quite simple and far superior to those heavy cream sauced recipes (in my opinion). If you don’t have pancetta (or can’t find it because the town you live in doesn’t seem to sell things like that, grumble grumble, Knoxville…) you may use bacon, although I always enjoy it more with pancetta… I keep some in my freezer just for this occasion. Also, beware, because even though this recipe says it feeds 2 people… well….. it, ummm, might just feed one… or so I’ve heard.


INGREDIENTS

• 4 oz. pancetta chopped in ½ inch slices
• 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, whole, not minced
• 1/8 cup of white wine
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more to sprinkle on top
• flat leaf parsley
• fresh ground pepper
• ~ ½ pound spaghetti (a bit less)

Boil pasta with salted water until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pan. When hot, add the whole cloves of garlic and let brown. Remove cloves from oil and discard. Add the pancetta and let cook. When the edges start to brown add the wine and let simmer for 1-2 minutes, until it cooks off. Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl crack and whisk the egg. Add the cheese, parsley, and pepper and stir.

When pasta is done, drain and immediately pour into the large pan with pancetta in it and quickly pour the egg mixture on top. Stir constantly for about 2 minutes, coating every piece of pasta. The heat from the pasta will cook the egg, but you must keep stirring so that you don’t end up with pasta mixed with scrambled eggs, if ya know what I mean… Sprinkle with leftover parsley and parmesan. EAT AND ENJOY.