Carbonara

This is my first attempt at recreating a dish from Europe.  I tried Carbonara for the first time in Marika's restaurant in Rome.  It's not too difficult and takes less than an hour to make.  I recommend using the best quality ingredients you can find.  Since the dish is so simple, the ingredients are the difference between mediocre and amazing.  The Carbonara came out perfectly (of course nothing beats the original) :]  Something I intend to whip up whenever I get Rome-sick.  


This one time, I was in Germany and I had a pig pee all over me.  I was a child and it was terrible.  I'm sure it was just an accident, but sometimes I secretly think that this pig had some deep-rooted animosity towards me.  So as reprisal, I add this dish to my grease-covered Recipe Book of Revenge, between "the baconizer" and "piggies in a blanket" (with the blankets also made out of piggies).


Yields: 4-6 Servings


Ingredients:

• 1 pound dry spaghetti
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 ounces pancetta, cubed
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 handful fresh Italian parsley, chopped

Directions:

Prepare the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure that the spaghetti will be hot and ready when the sauce is finished; it is very important that the pasta is hot when adding the egg mixture, so that the heat of the pasta cooks the raw eggs in the sauce.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to use in the sauce if you wish.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium flame. Add the pancetta and saute for about 3 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute for less than 1 minute to soften.

Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble (this is done off the heat to ensure this does not happen.) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. Season the carbonara with several turns of freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt. Mound the spaghetti carbonara into warm serving bowls and garnish with chopped parsley. Pass more cheese around the table.

Recipes stolen from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/spaghetti-alla-carbonara-recipe/index.html