Happy rainy Monday, folks. Sorry I missed your regular Friday dispatch, but sure hope you managed to survive… I need the readership!
Let’s pontificate today on simple dishes. I’ve long been a proponent of, when cooking, buying the absolute best ingredients you can find and afford, and letting the meal speak for itself. While it’s often fun to have the entire pantry out while preparing your meal… no, wait, it’s almost never fun to do that. Clean up is a pain, it’s hard to remember what goes where and when, it’s messy — no, in my mind, simple is almost always better. This recipe for carbonara epitomizes that.
This is a recipe I’m sure I found in my collegiate days, scouring every “men’s interest” magazine I could find, looking for recipes (not Playboy, don’t worry Christine!). Whereas many carbonara recipes end up calling for such extravagances as heavy cream, garlic, onions, butter, etc. (all good things, usually, don’t get me wrong), this version calls for just four real ingredients — pasta, bacon*, parmigiana cheese*, and eggs.
*Now if you’re a real purist, you’d use guanciale and pecarino, but I love bacon and Christine prefers parm to pecarino. Sue me.
Here’s how to make it:
Bring a heavily salted pot of water to boil and add in pasta of choice. Spaghetti is traditional, but I’ve used nearly every type and never not loved it.
While the pasta is cooking, roughly dice the bacon and let it render in a skillet. Ideally, you’ll time it so the bacon is ready right when the pasta finishes, but if your timing is off, just turn off the heat to the bacon (or drain the pasta and lightly oil so it doesn’t stick). Meanwhile, in a small bowl, beat together 2-3 eggs with a boatload of grated cheese until the mixture is uniform. Add some black pepper.
Drain the pasta when it’s just al dente, and mix it together with the rendered bacon and the fat. Don’t be stingy! Plate the pasta, dollop the egg and cheese mixture on top, and stir. The heat from the pasta and bacon will cook the egg just enough to leave you with a delightfully creamy coating. Enjoy!
So there ya go. Couldn’t be easier. The key here, really, is to use the best bacon you can find (thick cut is way better, don’t even think about using Oscar Meyer garbage), the best eggs (free range and organic), and the best cheese (real Parmigiana Reggiano). It will still be good if you skimp, but why?
Have a great week, and learn something new:
The history of “cooking out” [Food52]
Monkey glands? [Messy Nessy]
The Empowering of the American Mind [Persuasion]
…and linked to in the above [The Coddling]
A horse-packing ski adventure [Men’s Journal]