I love pasta. I love thinking about pasta. I love eating pasta. I love looking at pasta. And I love making pasta. What I do not love, is LEFTOVER pasta. Sorry, it is just never the same. Ever. So if you haven’t noticed I have been curating my recipes to make them super easy for just 1 or 2 people, like this carbonara!!!! I can eat this entire thing in one sitting if I want to hate myself but it is also very easily split between two people. It is not as scary as it seems, just follow my tips and tricks and head over to my Instagram to watch the tutorial!!!
what you need:
- 8 oz bucatini or spaghetti noodles THESE ARE THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE CARBONARA NOODLES IM SORRY
- 4 oz diced pancetta or thick cut bacon
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 cup FINE parmesan buy the kind that looks like dust but NOT THE KIND IN THE SHAKER BUY THE GOOD STUFF
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup pasta water, reserved
what you need to do:
- Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Cook pasta as the package directs you to.
- Meanwhile in a large nonstick pan, start to cook your pancetta or bacon. You want to render the fat down and have perfectly little crispy pieces.
- Now, you need to time this properly, as that is very important in making carbonara. You need this pancetta to be cooked and crispy before the noodles are done, so I always start this as soon as I add the noodles to the water and set it aside if it’s done before the pasta.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, egg yolk, Parmesan, and pepper. Whisk this very well. Very. Well. You do not want to even know it was eggs.
- This part is very important. When the pasta is ALMOST done, grab a ladle, scoop some of the pasta water, and pour it into the egg mixture. Do this very quickly. Add the water, then immediately start to whisk it into the egg mixture. You want to temper the egg mix so that when you add it to the noodles it does not make scrambled eggs. Set aside.
- Take the pan with the pancetta OFF OF THE HEAT, and add in the noodles. Stir to mix in the noodles with the meat, using tongs preferably, making sure to coat evenly. Do not put back on the burner this is important!
- While moving the noodles with your tongs, very slowly, and do a little at a time, pour in the egg sauce into the noodles. Start to move the noodles all around and make sure none of the sauce is just sitting in the pan anywhere. Continue to add sauce and continue to move the noodles until all of the sauce is added and the noodles are coated.
- Put the pan back on LOW heat and continue to move the noodles around for about another 2 minutes or so. You want to make sure the eggs cook but you DO NOT WANT SCRAMBLED EGGS!!!!
- Most important notes: you need the eggs to be tempered and you need to continue to move the noodles at all times to make sure the eggs DO NOT SCRAMBLE!!!
- Serve immediately and top with fresh cracked pepper and Parmesan cheese!