Pasta Carbonara
Pasta Carbonara, the carbonara sauce is one of the most easy pasta recipes that can be considered as a unique and complete meal, containing carbohydrates from the pasta and proteins from the pancetta, eggs and parmesan cheese.
Pasta carbonara is one of the first ones I learned when I came to live in Italy.
The most important thing about pasta alla carbonara is the eggs cooking: they are used raw, and they are going to cook with the pasta and the oil heat. So your timing in mixing it all quicky is very important.
I'll explain how to do it step by step.
Ingredients (4 people):
• 0.88lb of pasta (usually spaghetti)
• 1 medium onion finely sliced
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 0.33lb of smoked pancetta cutted in small cubes
• extra virgin olive oil
• minced parsley
• 0.22lb grated parmesan cheese
• 5 eggs (3 whole eggs and 2 yolks)
• fresh grounded pepper
• salt
You can prepare it while cooking the pasta.
How to prepare:
Put the sliced onion with 4 or 5 tablespoons of water into a frying pan. Let it cook with water before adding the oil. This will make them sweeter and give a better end result.When the water finishes, add the extra virgin olive oil. Let it cook for a while and then add the pancetta cubes. Let them colour, and then add the minced garlic and mix for a while (being careful to not colour the garlic).
Add parsley, salt and pepper and turn off the gas.
In a bowl, beat the 3 whole eggs plus the 2 yolks with the grated parmesan cheese.
In the meanwhile you have put your spaghetti to cook (remember to pay attention to cooking time! Spaghetti should take about 8 minutes, depending on its size). The original pasta alla carbonara recipe is prepared with spaghetti, but some people like to cook fettuccine with carbonara sauce - it's up to you. When the pasta is done, strain it through a colander and put it into a bowl and quickly add the eggs mix and then the bacon mix. Mix it all quickly. The heat of the pasta will cook the eggs.
Add some minced parsley if you like it and... buon appetito! (Humm... talking about this recipe made me feel like doing it for lunch today!).
