“Carbonara is like life. If you’re not paying attention, you’ll fuck it up.”
– Quote handed down from one Roman chef to the next
I’ve been making Spaghetti alla Carbonara for lunch a lot over the last two weeks. All you need is pasta, an egg, parmesan, and bacon (pork cheek for authenticity). I’ve just been making it with egg, parmesan and powdered garlic. It’s the ideal food for when you don’t feel like grocery shopping, or washing more than one pot. It would be a lazy person’s paradise if it weren’t for the part where you have to pay attention.
Here’s how you make Spaghetti alla Carbonara. You boil water. Cook your pasta for about 7 minutes, or until it’s al dente. Then you pour most of that hot water down the sink, draining your pasta while it’s still in the pot using the pot lid, and keep about a Tablespoon of pasta water in the pot. Set the pot back on the stove over very low heat (if any), crack an egg in it, and start tossing. Whether or not you use a spoon to mix up the egg, just tossing it with the pasta and pasta water does the trick. It turns opaque fairly quickly, but the trick is to catch it when it’s creamy – but not curdled.
Keep it on heat too long, and you’ll have scrambled egg pasta. Too short, and you risk salmonella. Just right, and you have a creamy, delicious pasta sauce – once you throw in your parmesan, powdered garlic, and a little salt and pepper.
It’s taken me at least 10 tries since learning the recipe in Rome in June to get it right, but yesterday, I finally did. A simple lunch, but a hard-earned skill.
*Everything I know about Italian Food I learned in these two places: