My favorite pasta is carbonara, also known as spaghetti carbonara. I have been trying to make one since the moment I tasted it from a small mall resto in my home town. I had looked into recipes from books and instructions from ready-to-make sauce packets, but always end up with a scramble egg. Even when I had the opportunity to observe someone, who traveled in Italy and worked in an Italian kitchen, still the outcome is burnt milk or scramble egg with milk. I thought cooking pasta and preparing complicated sauces is not for me, and will never get to make my own carbonara. I will have to surrender to ordering and paying for it in a restaurant. Until I found Antonio Carluccio’s video on his real version of spaghetti carbonara on Jamie Oliver’s Youtube Channel [1][2]. The recipe and the video are fairly simple and understandable, plus, Mr. carluccio’s real carbonara is the most healthy and delicious by far. So, filled with joy in my heart l am happy to share my own version, my discovery and woes in this journey to spaghetti carbonara heaven.
Let us begin our first pasta recipe with spaghetti carbonara
Spaghetti Carbonara
(1 serving or 2 but all just for me)
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Ingredients:
100 grams spaghetti or spaghettoni (the largest spaghetti)
2 teaspoons salt
15 grams guanciale (the cheek of the pork), or pancetta (Italian bacon) cut into small cubes, or bacon strip (honey cured preferred) cut into ½ inch
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
25 grams parmesan cheese (or aged pecorino) freshly grated or Eden Quick Melt cheese, grated
freshly ground black pepper
Procedures:
1. To cook the pasta: in our 2 qtr sauce pan, know will serve as our pot, add 1 liter of water or about an inch below the rim. Add 2 teaspoon of salt, bring to boil over medium high heat. Please do not add any oil, and but always remember the ratio of pasta to salt to water using Minifie’s pasta’s one golden rule of 10-100-1000, with 10 grams of salt to cook 100 grams of pasta in 1000 milliliters of water (1000 ml = 1 liter)[3].
2. Once in rolling boil, add the spaghetti by pushing gentle from the top the standing pasta until all submerge into the boiling water, cover the pot and bring to boil, again. Take off the lid once the water is up to boiling again. Cook the pasta until al dente. It would take about more or less 10 minutes. Preparing pasta took some practice and cooking time would also depend on the pasta’s brand and the altitude (and your attitude-joke!).
3. Cut the guanciale or pancetta or honey-cured bacon into chuck or small strips.
4. Heat the olive oil and fry the guanciale or pancetta or bacon until crisp.
5. To prepare the egg and cheese mixture aka sauce: In a bowl, lightly beat 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk, add the grated cheese and pinch of black pepper to taste. The additional egg yolk would make the egg sauce creamy. For additional serving just add 1 whole egg, example 2 servings needs to 2 whole egg and 1 egg yolk.
6. Reduce heat to low of the guanciale or bacon pan, or turn off completely if it is too hot.
7. When the pasta is ready, and if the bacon is already cool turn on heat to very low, just enough to heat back the guanciale or bacon.
8. Drain and add the pasta to the pan with guanciale or bacon. Turn off the heat. Then, mix well to coat and allow the pasta to cool a bit.
9. Add the egg and cheese mixture. Do not add the mixture if it is still too hot or else you get a scramble eggs rather than a creamy egg and cheese sauce.
10. Stir to completely coat the pasta and serve immediately.
NTS when reheating:
To reheat carbonara or any pasta in a microwave, add a tablespoon of water per serving, equally distributed around.
NTS optional ingredients and procedure:
Ingredients:
½ tablespoon butter
1 glove garlic, crush
Procedure:
4. Heat the olive oil and butter in a sauté pan, and add garlic. Once the garlic is aromatic add and fry the guanciale or pancetta or bacon until crisp. Take off the garlic glove when it starts to brown.
How about that! I hope you will find this simple recipe and its bits of side notes informative and useful in your beginner’s kitchen. If you like this blog post, please let me know, leave a comment below and do not forget to follow. If you do not like it, I would be grateful and would want to know what you think, please feel free to post you reactions, corrections and suggestions. Thank you.
As always enjoy. Itadakimase! Kain na!
References
1. Carluccio, A. (n.d.). Spaghetti alla Carbonara: Spaghetti Carbonarra (with Eggs and Bacon) [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://antonio-carluccio.co.uk/recipes/spaghetti-alla-carbonara/
2. Oliver, Jamie. (2014, March 27). Real Spaghetti Carbonara | Antonio Carluccio. [Video file]. Retrieve from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AAdKl1UYZs
3. Minifie, K. (2014, February 28). Pasta’s One Golden Rule. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.epicurious.com/archive/blogs/editor/2014/02/golden-rule-for-pasta-how-much-salt-in-pasta-water-recipe-and-tips.html
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