Spaghetti Carbonara

I got this recipe from a book I just read called Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient with Recipes by Jennifer Mclagan.

For some reason I do not like tomatoes. I wish I did. People love them. Every time I see someone bite into a fresh tomato and roll their eyes ecstasy, or taste a tomato sauce that puts them into a little place in heaven, I am envious.

I just don't like them. But I do love pasta, so I am always looking for different ways to have it. The easiest and favorite way for me is to have it with pesto sauce, which is a basil, Parmesan, olive oil and pine nut mixture.

This recipe excited me when I saw it. Teena does not like Parmesan cheese so I waited for her to be out of town before I tried it and loved it. It is simple to make and the combination of pancetta, my first time having it, egg and Parmesan is delicious.

Here's the recipe, just as I made it, only I used dried parsley.

Serves 2 (for 1 peerson use half the recipe but use 1 egg and 1 egg yolk)

Sea Salt and fresh ground pepper
7 oz/ 200 g spaghetti
3 1/2 oz/ 100 g pancetta
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 cup Parmesan
1/4 cup/ 60 ml white wine
parsley

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti. stir, and return to a boil. Adjust the heat so the water boils gently and cook 10 to 12 minutes until el dente. Drain well.

While the water is boiling cut the pancetta into matchstick size pieces. Place a large frying pan over a very low heat and add the pancetta. cook gently so that it renders it's fat and becomes crisp, about 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and yolk, season well with pepper and whisk in half the cheese.

When the pancetta is cooked, pour the wine into the frying pan and stir to deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Remove the pan from the heat.

Add the drained spaghetti to the pan. Toss the spaghetti to coat it with the pancetta and fat. Pour in the egg mixture and continue to toss until the spaghetti is coated. The heat of the spaghetti will cook the eggs. (I did not find this, so place the pan back onto the heat to cook the egg)

Sprinkle with parsley and serve with the remaining cheese on the side.

Give it a try!!