Pasta Carbonara
Carbonara is a simple pasta dish of eggs, cheese, and bacon. It’s easy and quick to make and can be a real treat if eaten as part of a balanced diet. I add a salad to balance the meal and a simple herb bread to finish it off.
The trick to a great carbonara is to get it silky smooth and not turn it into scrambled egg pasta. It is best to make just enough for a single meal as it is not great for leftovers. The following ingredient quantities will make four serves.
Ingredients
4 rashers of bacon
50g Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup cream
2 egg yolks
250g Pasta – fettucine is traditional for carbonara, but use whatever you like
For the Salad:
Salad greens
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Chopped walnuts
Sesame seeds
Handful of Parmesan cheese
For the herb bread:
Pide or ciabatta bread
Butter
Oregano or mixed herbs
Method
Turn the oven on to approximately 180 degrees Celsius. Lay the bacon rashers on an oven tray and pop them in the oven. If you’re making a herb bread, get it ready and into the oven now too.
Make your salad – my basic salad is fine for this. I add a little bit of grated Parmesan cheese to this salad, to give it some extra flavour and to compliment the carbonara. I add it once I’ve tossed the salad greens in the dressing, but before I add the nuts and seeds.
Put your pasta water on to boil, and add a little bit of salt – it really does make the pasta taste better. Add the pasta when water is boiling and cook for slightly less time than the packet recommends.
Finish off your salad, and plate it up. Take the herb bread out of the oven, slice and serve.
The carbonara sauce takes about 5 minutes to cook, so about 6 minutes before the pasta is finished, put your fry pan on a low heat. Take the bacon out of the oven, and tip the bacon fat into the fry pan. Add the balsamic vinegar – it will hiss and spit a little bit, which is okay. Add the cream, Parmesan cheese and mix well. Add some pepper. Let it sit for a minute on the lowest heat possible, and chop up your bacon.
The pasta should be ready now, so drain it and tip the sauce over it. Now, add the egg yolks and mix immediately. Finally, add the majority of the bacon and mix leaving the rest for sprinkling on top when serving.
Serve
Now, serve the pasta and top with any remaining bacon and Parmesan cheese. A hit of cracked pepper is great as well, and then straight to the table to eat. This meal does need to be eaten immediately, so make sure your crew are ready when you start making the sauce otherwise the sauce congeals and doesn’t taste as good.
This recipe obviously isn’t the healthiest pasta recipe ever, but if you have a small serve of pasta, with lots of salad, and you don’t have it too often, it’s a nice mid-week treat that takes 20 minutes to make, and tastes awesome.
