sheeplass and company would make if we were gaming or something that night. So it counts as a new recipe, right, since I hadn't made it before?Spahetti alla Carbonara, from How to Cook Everything
- 1 tbs olive oil (I skipped this and cooked the bacon in non-fat spray grease. Which worked fine, but the end product would have had more flavor if I'd used the olive oil. I didn't skip it on purpose; I was just cooking bacon in my normal fashion, then saw this in the recipe and said "whoops".)
- 4 ounces minced bacon, preferably slab bacon or pancetta (mmm, pancetta. Drool. We used turkey bacon. It was tasty.
sheeplass used to use vegeterian bacon, which also worked great.)- 2 eggs
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more (like lots more, since the cook will sit there and eat it the whole time she's cooking. :))
- 1 pound spaghetti, linguine, or other long pasta (I used rotini. It worked fine. Spaghetti might have picked up the sauce a little more evenly)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
1. Combine the olive oil and bascon in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasinally, until the bacon is crispy. When it's done, cut it up in to small pieces, if it's the kind of bacon that comes in strips.
2. Meanwhile, bring a lot pot of water to boil. Warm a large bowl in the oven, or by filling it with very hot water.
3. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in the bowl (take out the water first). Salt the boiling water and cook the pasta according to the box directions. When it is done, drain it and toss it immediately with the egg and cheese mixture. Add the bacon and any fat remaining in the skillet. Add lots of pepper and salt to taste. Serve immediately, adding extra cheese if desired.
This is really, crazy easy (I think the whole thing took 20 minutes) and really really tasty. I halved the recipe and there were no leftovers at all. Next time, I'll get unlazy and get a block of parmesan instead of the shredded stuff in a bag, which was still tasty; it just would have been better with fresh. Also, we think this would be really good with Italian sausage, or maybe chicken apple sausage, so that's probably what we'll do next time. And I just had the thought that it would probably be excellent with shrimp. The cookbook also suggests using zucchini instead of meat, and I think tossing in some fresh spinach at the last minute would be good, too. So, summary: incredibly tasty, quick, flexible, and fairly cheap recipe. I think this one is going to show up in the meal rotation on a regular basis.