I made this for Ally on our second date and it was so good I ended up stuck with her. It’s meant to be a fairly dry pasta dish so forget those jars of ‘Carbonara’ sauce you see in the supermarkets. Many, many years ago I worked in an Italian restaurant and the chef, Franco, taught me how to make this. It’s one I never forgot!
If you don’t like your pasta Al Dente – I think he was the dentist for the Mafia – just cook it for 2 more minutes than the pack says.
Ingredients
Method
- Grab a large frying pan, chuck in the olive oil and put it on a low heat
- Quarter your garlic cloves and add them to the pan. Cook gently for around 3-4 minutes then discard the garlic.
- Turn the heat up to high. Slice the bacon into strips approximately 2cm wide then fry them off. They need to be cooked but not crispy so 5 minutes will do here. Once they're cooked, remove the pan from the heat and let the bacon sit in it's own grease so it reabsorbs it all.
- Meanwhile, separate your eggs – we only want the yolks. Pop them in a jug with a good grind of black pepper and the parmesan. The mixture should be thick like porridge. Don't worry about this – we'll thin it out soon!
- Cook your pasta according to the pack instructions. Add plenty of salt to the water. Ally likes her pasta slightly overcooked so it's more chewy. The best option here is to have it al dente – but it's up to you!
- Once the pasta is cooked, drain and allow to steam dry for a couple of minutes – BUT retain two ladles of the water you cooked it in.
- Get the bacon pan back on a very low heat for a couple of minutes. Add some of the reserved water to the egg mixture and give it a swirl. Don't add too much water – we just want it to be runny enough to pour.
- Tip the drained pasta over the bacon and immediately add the now-runny egg mixture. Turn the heat off and mix continuously until the egg mixture has thickened and coated the pasta. If you leave the heat on, the eggs will cook too quickly and you'll end up with scrambled egg rather than the smooth coating we're aiming for
- Serve immediately with extra Parmesan, black pepper and some delicious garlic bread for mopping up
Cush’s Notes
This is so easy – the only scary part is bringing it all together at the end! Remember to turn off the heat as soon as you add the egg mix, otherwise you’ll end up with scrambled egg and bacon (not necessarily a bad thing!)