While I'm not a fan of any white sauce pasta but when Stanely Tucci ate a carbonara that left him speechless in the show Searching For Italy, I knew I had to make it. You know for Stanley's sake. At the restaurant Pommidoro, Stanley says how in America they make carbonara with cream and how it's terrible and I think that's pretty much the version that I've eaten mostly. Truly atrocious. But this carbonara recipe is based on the show itself. While we are here, if you love the bowl that we use to have our carbonara in, then you got to check out Jellyfish Pottery. They have such cool pasta bowls for you to buy from.
Ingredients
-Cooked spaghetti
- One full egg and one egg yolk
- Manchego (the show uses Pecorino Romano)
- Smoked bacon cubes (in the show and the traditional recipe calls for guanciale)
- Pepper
- Olive oil for cooking the bacon
- Fry the bacon cubes in olive oil
- Beat the eggs with the cheese for a good 15 minutes and then added in some of that olive oil that was used to cook the bacon. I added it in drops while it was still warm to get a silky texture.
- The next step is the process that makes or breaks your carbonara. To the pan, add in some of that pasta water and let it come to a slight boil before adding the cooked spaghetti. Keep stirring the spaghetti in the pasta water so it gets evenly coated and the water reduces a bit.
- Stir in half of the egg mixture and keep tossing the spaghetti. Make sure you are doing all of this on low flame. The high flame will get your eggs to cook faster and scramble away. Once you've got some bubbling on the side, stir in the remaining egg mixture and repeat the process.
- The trick is to let the egg not settle down (the constant tossing) but get cooked in that spaghetti-pasta water heat just enough to get that creaminess going on. If you think your pan is really hot, you can even turn off the stove and just use the existing heat.
- Carbonara has to be served hot because it gets dry quickly and you'll lose all the shine and creaminess. Sprinkle some crushed pepper and grated cheese while serving it.