Give me your Carbonara recipe!

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve perfected the Margarita, and the Warm Scallop Salad with Tomato-Bacon Concasse. My chocolate chip cookies are to die for, and I can make a rum drink that will make you cray. Omelettes are perfectly done, as are the soft clouds of my scrambled eggs. I’m now turning my skills to Carbonara. Yup, the classic bacon-and-egg pasta dish.

So far, I’ve tried two recipes. One wasn’t tasty enough, but had a good texture. The other glommed onto the noodles, resulting in an overly dry dish. Who can make the perfect Carbonara? Give me your recipe!

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PS - I’m looking for classic Carbonara. Raw eggs, bacon or pancetta, and parmesan. Not some abortion concocted out of cream and bacon bits. I like salmonella - give me the raw eggs!

3

Give me your carbonara recipe, what?

4

Cook up a whole bunch of bacon. A little on the crisp side is better. Pancetta is good but it’s kind of salty. Sometimes I use a mix of pancetta and regular American bacon (which I normally never eat - Irish is so much better). When done cooking, crumble it up into not-too-small pieces. Set aside and keep warm.

Make the spaghetti. Don’t cook it too much. Drain well.

Put it back in the pot and put the pot over low heat. Break a couple of eggs (or one or three, depending on how much spaghetti you are making) over the hot spaghetti. (Note: for this to work you must not leave the spaghetti to cool off - it needs to be pretty hot.) Stir up the eggs in the spaghetti until they cook and are evenly spread throughout. Add the bacon and a LOT of freshly ground black pepper. Add some fresh Parmiggiano - none of that canned stuff and nothing labeled “Parmesan” - that’s for sissies.

Eat. Then have a second bowl.

(I’ve never seen a real Italian restaurant, in Italy, make Carbonara with either cream or peas. Maybe they do it that way somewhere in Italy, just not in any of the places I’ve been to.)

5

Do you prefer your carbonara with or without onions? Wars have started over this issue.

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A girl after my own heart!

I just saw your second post. I thought you were going to ask “but what about the peasssss???”

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You know, cream has gotten a bad rap in Carbonara mythology. True, the authentic version made by the Italian guys in the woods wouldn’t have cream, they only used stuff that didn’t need refrigeration like eggs, bacon, cheese, and pasta. But if you’re having texture problems, you may want to think about a few tablespoons. It tends to stabilize things and results in a more consistent, less glommy product. And by all means, grate your own cheese. The stuff in the green can isn’t fit for kitty litter.

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<sigh> I’m really doing something wrong here if people are seriously thinking I need to be told not to use the parmesan in the green can. I remember once having someone ask me to buy “fat-free parmesan” for them. I didn’t think such a thing existed (and indeed, if it did, I wouldn’t eat it), and told them as much. They insisted it did. OK, fine, I go to the store. I search high and low for the stuff, can’t find it. Go back, tell person it doesn’t exist. They tell me I’m nuts, it’s right there on the shelf, next to the “regular” parmesan in the green can. I had never even thought to look there. In fact, I had forgotton such stuff existed. I had been searching the dairy case, since, after all, parmesan is CHEESE and it should be REFRIGERATED!

Anyway, back to the original thread…

What I’m looking for here is essentially a good “mother recipe” for carbonara, something I can add onions or peas to if/when the desire hits me. I want a good basic sauce that generally works.

The first recipe I tried was pretty good. For 1/2 pound of pasta, it was 2 eggs beaten, paremesan, some bacon/pancetta, peas, & thyme. I’m going from memory here, but that was about it. Cook the bacon, cook the pasta, mix eggs with parmesan, thyme, salt and pepper. Add hot pasta to egg mixture, mix. Add cooked bacon/pancetta, a little bacon grease, and the peas. Eat. Good texture, but the flavor just wasn’t bright enough. That may be the fault of the bacon - I could try using higher quality bacon or pancetta and see if it makes a difference.

Second recipe had bacon cooked, then you add some white wine in with the bacon to deglaze. Reduce wine by half. Instead of 2 whole eggs, use 2 yolks. Use parsley instead of thyme. Otherwise, as above. This produced a more concentrated flavor, but the yolks pretty much just cooked onto the hot noodles, resulting in a very dry dish. This was Guillermo (sp?) Hazan’s recipe, Marcella’s kid, and I think he just haaaad to do something different than Marcella, so he suggested the yolk-only thing. Bad kid. He should just listen to his mother.

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“Give me your carbonara recipe, or I’ll kill you!”

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Sorry, I wasn’t aware that you are on the Advanced Cook track. Apologies.

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In honor of this thread and the power of suggestion, I was forced to make carbonara for dinner. Had to improvise with Oscar Mayer instead of pancetta, but it sure did come out yummy.

I tend not to have a concrete recipe when I make it. I usually start off with more eggs than I’ll need as I tend to let the pasta tell me how much to use. So tonight it was 5 slices of bacon, 2 eggs with a splash of cream, a handful of spaghetti and a fair amount of parmesan.

Like I said, it was yummy, but not perfect. I don’t have the culinary cojones to try to make the perfect carbonara. I think it would involve using some of the bacon drippings in with the eggs and using more yolks than whites. I can feel my cholesterol spiking just thinking about it. Same reason I don’t do alfredo at home.

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The following is from a restaurant that, until June 26, I was the General Manager, but since the fuckers canned me, here’s their recipe. This is New Mexico, and EVERYTHING has green chile in it. If you know what it is, add it, if you don’t, it’s still an excellent recipe. Serves 1

INGREDIENTS

  1. olive oil 1 tbl.
  2. chopped garlic 1 tsp.
  3. dice yellow onion 1 oz
  4. dice bacon 1 oz
  5. diced green chile 1.5 oz
  6. sweet corn 1 oz
  7. Salt ½ tsp.
  8. egg 1 ea
  9. linguine 8 oz
  10. parmesan 1 oz
  11. black pepper pinch

PROCEDURE
Sweat onions and garlic in olive oil, then add bacon, corn, green chile, salt, and sauté until onions are translucent then add egg and immediately toss with hot pasta and parmesan cheese top with freshly ground pepper

13

That last recipe with the corn and green chile was just plain wrong.

Here goes:

Dice half a medium yellow onion and thinly slice or mince three cloves of garlic. Chop pancetta (plain bacon is acceptable, but you’ll have to drain most of the grease) into small bits and saute until just crispy. Add three tablespoons butter. When the butter melts, put in the diced onion. When the onion is just short of being done, put in the garlic, and when the garlic is done stop the frying by adding half a cup of dry white wine. It’s important to do it in this order or else the garlic will burn before your onion is done. Boil off the wine until you don’t smell alcohol anymore.

Add a cup of milk. Stir together, and then add…now this is important…two tablespoons of red wine vinegar, a pinch of saffron threads, and some ground black pepper. The vinegar will curdle the milk and give the sauce that tangy flavor. Simmer the mixture while you cook your pasta. A shaped pasta like shells works best because the sauce isn’t sticky enough to cling to linguine.

When your pasta is done, drain the pasta and toss with the milk mixture, a quarter cup of grated Parmiggiano-Reggiano, and a beaten egg. Garnish with chopped parsley and salt to taste. Serves two as a pasta course.

14

I haven’t tried it, mind you, but it sounds like you should do the Guillermo Hazan recipe, but with whole eggs instead of just the yolks. Or use the first recipe, but do the deglazing thing.

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Black pepper! It’s not coal vendor’s spaghetti for nothing. Egg and bacon, perhaps a few sweated green onions or leeks, then a generous dusting of freshly ground black pepper.

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[NITPIC]Coal vendor’s wife’s spaghetti[/NITPIC]

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Aww, Missbunny, I hope I didn’t come across too strong on that parmesan thing. I just get a little… emotional about my cheese, I guess!

Thanks to all for the recipes. Boy, lots o’ variations. New Mexico Carbonara? Sheeesh… I’m in Colorado, and I really like green chile, but I don’t have to put it in everything!

Manduck, I’m leaning towards the Hazan with whole eggs. I think that’s how Marcella does it - must check cookbook.

Vinegar? In Carbonara? ummm… I think I’ll stick with bacon & cheese for that “tangy” flavor…

pcubed, Yup, bacon drippings, egg yolks… this is not a light recipe. However, I’m hoping that I get off my ass and ride my bike enough that it doesn’t matter. Besides, if God didn’t want us to eat bacon grease, he’d’ve made low fat pigs.

I make alfredo at home, too, but not very often.

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No, no, don’t worry - I’m sensitive about my cheese too! Have you ever gotten the “Fresh mozzarella? Why don’t you just get that Sargento shredded stuff for the ‘capreese’ salad? It’s all the same” question? Grrrr . . .

Anyway, both the recipes you are using sound good, so maybe it’s just a matter of changing the brand of bacon or using more pepper or something.

This thread is really making me hungry.