Fettucine Carbonara

Today we're making Pasta Carbonara the traditional italian way ... sorta!

Traditional Pasta Carbonara ... and what we're substituting for

- Spaghetti ... or any long-ish pasta. We used fettucine

- Jowl Bacon ... or any back bacon / streaks bacon

- Eggs : 1 per serving
- Pecorino ... we used Parmiggiano. No no no no no to cheddar!

And that's it ... simple huh?!?!? Italian cuisine is often about simple but time proven methods and using few but high quality ingredients. None of that mushroom, ham, chicken, heavy cream, milk etc. etc. that many many other common variations nowadays have.

1) Shred thy cheese. You'll be using quite a lot so be liberal - about 1/2 - 3/4 cup for 2 servings.

2) Ah ... we meet again old friend.


3) If you wanna optimize your time, pop in your pasta into a pot of boiling water and let it cook while prepping your bacon. Follow the below guide for al dente pasta :-
- 1L of water for every 100g of pasta
- Bring water to boil first, add some salt and oil if you wish
- Don't snap your pasta, put them straight in and stir, it'll soften and sink in nicely
- Do stir once in a while to prevent clumping
- Cooking times ranges from 3 - 12 min depending on what kinda pasta you're using ... check a guide!
- A couple of tests you can do, the no-white-circle-in-the-cross-section-test, then sticks-to-fridge-wall test, or the taste test
- Toss finished pasta into cold water when done, apparently it helps them seperate!

Pretty nifty guide : http://theyumblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/how-to-cook-pasta-al-dente-recipe-marathon-day-9/

4) Pan fry thy old friend. You can add garlic or onions if you wish - we added some garlic. If you're cooking the pasta at the same time, start pan frying thy old friend when the pasta's near done since this step doesn't take more than 2 minutes.

5) With your bacon fat and bacon in your pan, dump your drained al dente pasta straight into the pan and stir. Heat should be lowered at this point, then after some stirring (add S&P and herbs if you wish), sashay in your cheese and stir.

6) With cheese mixed satisfactorily, turn off heat and if you want, remove spaghetti from pan. With the pasta sufficiently cooled down, pour in your egg and mix. If the pasta is too hot, the egg will scramble (like it did with ours D: still yum though).

7) And voila, you're done and ready for consumption. Sprinkle excess cheese on the top, some rocket by the side (surprisingly goes orgasmically well with carbonara) and you've a meal fit for the Romans.

Always be wary when serving an Italian dude what you claim to be Spaghetti Carbonara. If it's made in any way other than Spaghetti + Pecorino + Jowl Bacon, do say that it's like Carbonara-like instead :)