So... as John and Jenn were preparing to leave for beautiful Costa Rica, I made sure to go over and help - not to help them pack, but to relieve their fridge of anything that could spoil while they were gone. (Like goat cheese, bacon, steaks... I'm such a good friend, I know.) In fact, there may have been a bottle or two of wine that was going to go bad in their absence as well.
So, we were trying to figure out what was for dinner (Chinese, pizza, sushi...) when Jennifer got a message from her nephew asking if we had any good recipes for a pasta with a "white sauce." While they are not pasta people normally, I could bathe in a good vodka or alfredo sauce for the rest of my life, so without looking up, I responded "carbonara... he probably already has all the ingredients in the fridge." And with that... we realized that we weren't doing take-out that night.
Pasta Carbonara
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(Sorry for the bad picture quality.)
Okay, I'm rather passionate about carbonara sauce, so pay attention. :-)
First off, all the main ingredients are most likely sitting in your fridge. It comes down to eggs, bacon or pancetta, grated parmesan cheese, onion, and garlic. Real carbonara sauce does NOT have heavy cream in it. The beauty of this sauce is that its kind of a "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of thing - you can add whatever the heck you want to add to it - veggies, chicken, fish, steak, etc. Clean out the fridge, people.
However, cooking method is particular if you want to achieve that creamy texture. Cook your bacon, and then the shallots and garlic first. Let that hang out in a bowl and cool slightly. Then cook your pasta. Drain and let hang out in a bowl and cool slightly. In a separate bowl (yes, there's a lot of bowls), whisk the parmesan cheese and the eggs together vigorously. Add the bacon/onion/garlic mixture to the slightly cooled pasta. Then add the egg/parmesan mixture and using tongs, mix like hell. The heat off the pasta will cook the eggs, and because you let it cool slightly, it will NOT create scrambled eggs. (If you're still nervous, you can temper the egg mix by adding lukewarm bacon/onion/garlic to it first and then adding to the pasta.)
It's not scary, folks. Give it a shot!
And yes, I have a menu planned for tomorrow. (And it includes dessert... something I normally won't make on my own... I think you'll all be rather impressed with my efforts.) Talk to you in a couple days.
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