If you never had spaghetti carbonara, you need to try it ASAP! Evey bite is a delightful blend of rich egg and pungent cheese on perfectly cooked spaghetti. Not sure what is on the menu tonight? Make it a Spaghetti Carbonara night! Goes great paired with French Bread! #SoNomNom4u #SpaghettiCarbonara
This recipe feeds 2 nicely. Feeding 4? Double it!
8 oz. spaghetti, bucatini, or long macaroni
4 oz. Cured Pork Jowl, julienned or Pancetta (Italian bacon), julienned (regular bacon cut into strips works ok too)
2 TBSP Olive oil
1-1/2 cup water (1/2 cup plain water and reserve 1 cup of the pasta water)
1/3 cup +1/4 cup Romano Cheese
1/3 cup +1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp fresh cracked peppercorns
1 egg
3 egg yolks
Parsley flakes for garnish
Fresh cracked pepper to garnish
Boil a large pot of water with 2 TBSP salt and 2 TBSP olive oil.
In a large skillet, add olive oil and brown the pork jowl/pancetta until slightly cooked and NOT CRISP. Remove from pan and set aside. Add 1/2 cup water into the pan, stir to clean the meat juices and set aside.
Boil your spaghetti noodles for about 4-6 minutes. Remove from water with a pasta spoon and place all the cooked spaghetti into the large skillet with meat water. Toss pasta in the water. Stir water into pasta. Heat on high until all water is cooked out and pasta is completely heated. When all the pasta is removed from the original water it boiled in, reserve 1-1/2 cup of pasta water and discard the rest.
Now, crack 1 egg into a bowl and separate 3 eggs, keeping the yolks only. Discard the whites. The bowl should contain 1 whole egg and 3 egg yolks. Now, add 1/3 cup romano cheese, 1/3 cup parmesan cheese and fresh cracked pepper. Whisk the egg mixture completely. Keep whisking and slowly add 1 cup of pasta water while whisking very fast during the addition. Once all the water is mixed into the eggs, bring the mixture over to the pan of spaghetti noodles.
Turn on the pan of spaghetti noodles to low heat. Stir to evenly heat noodles. If they are still hot, skip this step but keep pan on low heat.
Now, pour the egg mixture over the noodles, tossing to coat. Make sure the heat is on low or you will scramble your eggs.
If it looks too thick, add the other 1/2 cup of reserved pasta water to the pan and toss it all up to coat.
Cook on low heat until some of the liquids cook down and the pasta is coated with a thick combination. (about 1 minute) Add the julienned pork jowl/pancetta/bacon. Toss with remaining 1/4 cup romano and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese and fresh cracked pepper. Serve piping hot!
