Pasta Carbonara

This is a formula more than a recipe – just multiply the ingredients by the number of servings you want to make. It’s easy and quick.

Total prep and cooking time:  20 minutes

Per person:

¼ lb. (125 g.) dry pasta of your choice
1 egg yolk
¼ cup heavy cream or half-and-half
½ cup grated/shredded parmesan cheese
2 slices of bacon
hot pasta water (as needed)
 

  
Slice the bacon into short little strips. Render bacon fat by cooking it in a frying pan over medium heat, stirring often, and drain well. You can do this while the water to cook your pasta is coming to a boil. You can also measure out your cream, separate your eggs to get the yolks, and grate your cheese.

When the water has boiled, add a good pinch of salt and your noodles. While the noodles cook, beat together the egg yolks and cream in a large serving bowl. Add a tablespoon or so of the hot pasta water to warm the egg-cream mixture, and stir it in. When the pasta is cooked, use a spider-strainer or tongs to transfer the dripping pasta to the bowl of eggs and cream. Stir well, adding a little extra pasta-cooking water if the mixture looks too dry (don’t add more than about ¼ cup at first). The heat of the hot pasta will cook the egg thoroughly. Add the bacon pieces and the parmesan cheese, and stir. Garnish with lots of black pepper for the traditional finish – I also like to add finely sliced basil. Feel free to top with more parmesan cheese, if you like.
 

 

 

PSSST!

Welcome to the brand new look for Always in the Kitchen.  The new site was developed by Julie McGalliard, who sorted out my barely coherent ramblings about what I wanted, and developed the art and technical components for the entire site.  Thanks, Julie!

The older pages will be brought into the new format gradually, as I find the time to do it.  In the meantime, please be patient.  Let me know if you find any broken links, or if the site is acting weird, though.