Pasta Carbonara
My son, Luke DeSando, shows a simple way to cook Pasta Carbonara, without adding oil, cream and/or butter and avoiding scrambling the eggs as you finish the dish. By tempering the eggs (see tempering below), you get a creamy texture and fully cooked eggs. Remember: the main goal is creaminess.
Yield: 4
Calories: 574kcal
Equipment
- Pot of boiling water, saucepan, large mixing bowl
Materials
- 1 pound Pasta choose your favorite type of pasta
- Salt for pasta water
- 4-5 slices thick bacon cut into 1/2-inch pieces (or use guanciale or pancetta)
- 1¼ cups grated Pecorino Romano (substitute Parmesan if you like)
- 3 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
- Fresh Ground Pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a pot of boiling, salted water, start to cook your pasta according to the directions on the box. (Timing for this dish is very important.)
- At the same time, cook the chopped bacon/guanciale/pancetta in pan without any oil.
- Using the boiling, salted pasta water, add a couple of tablespoons as needed to deglaze the pan of bacon, as it cooks.
- Cook bacon until lightly golden and there are several tablespoons of bacon fat in the pan.
- While the bacon cooks, whisk your egg yolks and egg together in a big serving bowl.
- Whisk the grated cheese into the egg mixture. Should be a frothy consistency.
- Slowly and carefully, drizzle the hot, bacon fat into the egg/cheese mixture, to temper the eggs, while continually whisking the mixture. (See Tempering below*)
- Add the cooked bacon/guanciale/pancetta to the egg/cheese mixture
- When your pasta is cooked al dente, use a pasta fork to work in batches and add about 1/3 of the cooked pasta to your bowl of egg/cheese/guanciale mixture.
- Stir the pasta to have it absorb the creamy egg/cheese/bacon flavor.
- Repeat with the remaining 2/3, 1/3 at a time, until you have added all the pasta
- Add fresh ground black pepper to taste.
- Serve and top every plate with more Pecorino Romano (or Parmesan)
Video
Notes
**-Mixing the pasta with the sauce in a warm serving bowl rather than a hot skillet or pot allows the residual heat of the pasta to “cook” the sauce without any chance of overcooking or scrambling the eggs
* “Tempering” is just a fancy way of saying that you want to mix two liquids of different temperatures together without altering the texture of the liquids.
* “Tempering” is just a fancy way of saying that you want to mix two liquids of different temperatures together without altering the texture of the liquids.
Nutrition
Calories: 574kcal