Who doesn't love a big steaming bowl of pasta right? Especially the classic carbonara.
This is basically all I used to cook as a teenager growing up, starting with the usual cream and egg and parmesan, bacon set up, and now I'm out with the cream and only use egg, parmesan and pepper.
My go to guy for this recipe is gonna have to be Gennaro Contaldo. Best mates with Jamie Oliver and a true Italian, no better guy to get your pasta recipes from.
Oh also, just to up our game a bit, we used our own home cured bacon ... yup you heard me. We came across a home curing kit made by @rossandrossfood, all it takes is some pork belly, dry cure, a zip lock bag, a weeks worth of patience and some fancy looking bacon coming your way. Give them a try.
Classic Spaghetti Carbonara
Serves 2
INGREDIENTS
3 large free-range egg yolks
40 g Parmesan cheese , plus extra to serve
150g pancetta / bacon lardons
200 g dried spaghetti
1 clove of garlic
extra virgin olive oil
METHOD
Put the egg yolks into a bowl, finely grate in the Parmesan, season with pepper, then mix well with a fork and put to one side.
Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente.
Place a medium frying pan over a medium-high heat, add a glut of oil. Peel the garlic, then crush with the palm of your hand, add it to the pan and leave it to flavour the fat for 1 minute. Stir in the pancetta, then cook for 4 minutes, or until it starts to crisp up.
Pick out and discard the garlic from the pan.
When the pasta has cooked, scoop out a mug full of the starchy pasta water, you'll need this to loosen the sauce later on, and then drain the pasta into a colander.
Add the spaghetti to the pancetta, toss well over the heat so it really soaks up all that lovely flavour, then remove the pan from the heat.
Add a splash of the cooking water and toss well, season with pepper, then pour in the egg mixture – the pan will help to cook the egg gently, rather than scrambling it.
Toss well, adding more cooking water until it’s lovely and glossy. Serve with a grating of Parmesan and an extra twist of pepper.