carbonararific

Flu sounds so trivial, but when you have it full-blown it is the worst feeling ever. I spent the entirety of this morning and afternoon in bed (waking up briefly to have a bowl of soup for lunch, use up all my tissue and Lemsip, and then go back to bed). It was pretty surreal. I wonder where the day has gone, and I am suffering mild panic from having only done one (ONE) job application the whole week because I have been ill/lazy/unable to find a lot of jobs to apply for in the first place.

It was a rare low point for me today… I like to think I’m pretty upbeat, and I don’t often get despairing sorry-for-myself feelings of being a failure and wanting to throw in the towel, but today they briefly hit. I don’t really know why. It was probably a combination of having been idle almost the whole week, feeling physically dreadful, and not having much to look forward to jobwise.

In the spirit of thankfulness, however (inspired by Steffy’s blog), yesterday I had a very enjoyable dinner at Tokyo Diner with the unlikeliest bunch of old acquaintances :) and I’m looking forward to next week – long, long overdue night out with ex-colleagues Hannah and Vanessa, some front of house volunteering, meeting up with Eunice, dinner with Charmain, and Oxford over the weekend! Excited.

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And now, carbonara recipe time!

I wanted to post this anyway because it was so fantastic, but I’m glad there is popular demand for it. As a bit of background: authentic Italian carbonara does not contain cream. I’m not even sure if it contains egg whites. I suspect it doesn’t, and it’s only meant to be cooked with egg yolk – which is why I avoided it for such a long time (I don’t like separating eggs, I always end up throwing out the unused half cos I don’t know what to do with it). But the other day I came across this recipe which didn’t involve separating eggs, and I tried it out immediately.

As I never measure anything, these proportions are taken from the link above:

600 grams spaghetti or bucatini
120 grams guanciale or pancetta — diced or cut into strips
1 clove garlic
2 medium eggs (very fresh)
100 grams mixed Parmesan and pecorino Romano (or all pecorino) – grated
olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Boil your pasta till al dente. Drain. Save some of the pasta water.

2. While the pasta is boiling, beat eggs in a bowl with a pinch of salt and some cheese.
3. Peel your garlic clove and fry it with the guanciale or pancetta in a pan till the meat is on the verge of becoming crispy. You don’t have to add oil to the pan if there is enough fat on your meat. I never do.
4. Add the drained pasta to the pan and toss with the guanciale/pancetta.
5. Lower heat to minimum. Add the egg mixture and toss well. Be VERY careful not to let the egg set or cook because you will have scrambled egg with pasta if you do so. If it looks too dry, thin it with pasta water.
6. Remove from heat and add the rest of the cheese plus salt and black pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Some notes

My proportions were all out of whack, but essentially they were: 2 servings of pasta, 205g pancetta (which was too much, but that was the amount my pack contained and I didn’t want to have like 2 tablespoonfuls of pancetta sitting in my fridge), 3 medium eggs, and a lot of cheese. I like cheese.

I didn’t have pecorino Romano, so I only used Parmesan. I think it makes a difference, so the next time I will try it with both cheeses. Also I had run out of garlic, so I skipped that. It turned out fine, though I adore garlic and I’m sure it would’ve been better with.

For extra droolsome flavour, turn down the heat before you add the pasta to the pan, and throw in a generous splash of white wine while your guanciale/pancetta is still sizzling. Let this reduce till you get a delicious syrupy winey liquid, then add the pasta. I didn’t do this in this recipe because I had no wine in the house (sob), and it is probably grossly inauthentic anyway, but I usually do it when I make carbonara and the wine imparts a terrific kick. I’m not enough of a gastronome to properly put it into words, so all i can say is it tastes really good.

This recipe does not reheat well. Obvious on hindsight, but I’m not the brightest bulb in the box, so I reheated it the next day and wound up with exactly what you’re not supposed to (scrambled egg pasta).

The bottom line… carbonara typically feels too heavy and sickening after a while because of the addition of cream (an American adulteration). The egg way produces a much lighter, more palatable dish. And it was really the best carbonara I’ve ever had, ever. I tend to serially order carbonara at Italian restaurants because it is by far my favourite pasta, and I’ve had a lot of carbonara, but I feel like I can’t have it with cream any more after trying this.

Let me know how you get on with it if you try it out!