There are many stories about where the name “carbonara” originates from, one legend points to it being the favoured dish of the charcoal workers in central Italy. Whatever the origins of the dish it is one that is nearly always cooked awfully by people who add great dolops of double cream, making the pasta heavy and very hard to digest. In fact no cream at all is used in the true Italian version and great care must be taken to make sure the eggs do not scramble.
Ingredients (6 People)
- 600g Spaghetti
- 180g Good quality pancetta
- 1tbsp Olive oil
- 6 Eggs
- 150g Pecorino/Paremsan (grated)
- Salt + black pepper
Method
In a large bowl wisk the eggs and then mix in the cheese and season with black pepper. While the pasta cooks dice the pancetta and then fry it off under a low heat in the olive oil using a non stick frying pan. Fry until the pancetta becomes browned and slightly crunchy.
Drain the pasta (make sure it’s very al dente as it will continue to cook for a bit in the frying pan) but save 2 spoon fulls of the water, now add the pasta to the frying pan with the pancetta and pour the drained water over the pasta. Now let the flavours amalgamated and cook until all the pasta water has evaporated. When this is done transfer the pasta to the bowl with the eggs and cheese and mix quickly making sure the eggs do not scramble ( this happens if they reach 70°) and remain nice a creamy. The eggs will cook properly with the heat of the pasta so there’s no need to scramble them like many restaurants seem to do. The pasta should be served immediately with black pepper and salt to taste (easy on the salt as the pancetta can be quite salty). Enjoy!!
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