Good egg
I've always hated spaghetti carbonara - not the restaurant version but the various abominations I've eaten in the name of duplicating the recipe at home. Pasta and scrambled eggs anyone?
But I've finally found a recipe that works for me - care of Bill Buford's Heat (an exploration of different forms of professional food preparation subtitled An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany). It took 10 minutes to cook, has only 5 ingredients and even (with a little less pasta and cheese than you might use) scrapes in under the 400cal limit I try to stick to for my evening meal.
1. Put the pasta on, in plenty of boiling salted water.
2. Fry up a diced slice of bacon, or some pancetta if you're feeling fancy (I've also learnt that the authentic meat to use is guanciale - pig's cheek!). Dry pan if its got plenty of fat on it, otherwise a touch of oil.
3. I diverted from the recipe here and added a bit of onion, half a small one finely chopped, when the bacon was rendered down. Heat down and cook till its translucent.
4. Separate an egg.
5. Grate 30-50g parmesan.
6. Warm up the serving bowl with by standing in boiling water, in the oven or microwave if you have those fancy heating pads.
7. When the pasta is just cooked (He says 6 and a half minutes, but I like mine more like 9) drain, reserving a bit of the cooking water.
8. Add the pasta, egg white and cheese to the frying pan. Mix furiously, adding the reserved pasta water as required to let the "sauce" down. It looks pretty ugly just now.
9. Transfer pasta to serving bowl. Add egg yolk and mix. A pinch of salt and in my case loads of black pepper, and eat!
The simplicity of the recipe - no cream, herbs, or wine - is what attracted me to have another go. And it was glorious, the egg yolk coating every strand of spaghetti and mouthfuls more or less smoky or sweet with the bacon and onion. I may go the whole hog and try it without the onion in future.
NB. I think this recipe is suited to making for one or two but may be more difficult to make for any more.
But I've finally found a recipe that works for me - care of Bill Buford's Heat (an exploration of different forms of professional food preparation subtitled An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany). It took 10 minutes to cook, has only 5 ingredients and even (with a little less pasta and cheese than you might use) scrapes in under the 400cal limit I try to stick to for my evening meal.
1. Put the pasta on, in plenty of boiling salted water.
2. Fry up a diced slice of bacon, or some pancetta if you're feeling fancy (I've also learnt that the authentic meat to use is guanciale - pig's cheek!). Dry pan if its got plenty of fat on it, otherwise a touch of oil.
3. I diverted from the recipe here and added a bit of onion, half a small one finely chopped, when the bacon was rendered down. Heat down and cook till its translucent.
4. Separate an egg.
5. Grate 30-50g parmesan.
6. Warm up the serving bowl with by standing in boiling water, in the oven or microwave if you have those fancy heating pads.
7. When the pasta is just cooked (He says 6 and a half minutes, but I like mine more like 9) drain, reserving a bit of the cooking water.
8. Add the pasta, egg white and cheese to the frying pan. Mix furiously, adding the reserved pasta water as required to let the "sauce" down. It looks pretty ugly just now.
9. Transfer pasta to serving bowl. Add egg yolk and mix. A pinch of salt and in my case loads of black pepper, and eat!
The simplicity of the recipe - no cream, herbs, or wine - is what attracted me to have another go. And it was glorious, the egg yolk coating every strand of spaghetti and mouthfuls more or less smoky or sweet with the bacon and onion. I may go the whole hog and try it without the onion in future.
NB. I think this recipe is suited to making for one or two but may be more difficult to make for any more.