Spaghetti carbonara

I have memories of my Nonna Curcio, my mum’s mum, teaching me how to make spaghetti carbonara, among many other things from a young age. No doubt because it’s delicious every time, this recipe stuck, and became my ‘signature dish’. It’s so easy and accessible, and never fails. It has bacon in it! Apologies to all my vegetarian friends and family.

The following recipe includes quantities for 3 people, so if there are more people, just double or triple the amounts. This recipe also counts on the pasta (whether spaghetti or fettuccine) already prepared fresh, or straight out of the bag. Carbonara refers to ‘the sauce’. The word ‘carbonara’ means ‘to be cooked over coals’ or in a coal burner. That’s how it was ‘in the olden days’ as my Nonna would say.

Ingredients

4 egg yolks (usually one egg per person and one for the pot!)

300g guanciale, speck, Kaiserfleisch bacon … or just ‘normal’ bacon, diced into small pieces
Parmesan cheese (a lot!)


Bunch of parsley


Salt and pepper, to season

Note: This recipe is for three people. Adjust accordingly depending on the amount of people you’re cooking for.

Method


1. Put a pot of salted water on to boil.


2. Place the four egg yolks into a large bowl (big enough to hold the cooked pasta later), whisk and set aside.


3. When the pot is boiling, put your fettuccine or spaghetti in.

4. Put a dash of olive oil in a large frying pan (you don’t need much as the bacon produces its own oil when cooking. It’s also quite salty, so be mindful of this when seasoning).


5. When the olive oil is hot, put the bacon in and fry until brown. 

6. Put a little bit of the water from the pasta pot into the frying pan with the bacon and let that sizzle away.


7. When the fettuccine/spaghetti has cooked, using tongs, place the fettuccine inside the large frying pan with bacon. The fettuccine will take on all of those delicious bacon flavours

8. Mix this through in the frying pan, and then pour the mixture into the large bowl with the eggs.


9. Add parsley and mix this all through quickly.


10. Season with salt and pepper (I use more pepper than salt, as it can already be quite salty from the bacon).


11. Serve covered in Parmesan cheese.

There are a few ‘tweaks’ to the Carbonara process depending on whose Nonna taught who! When my brother-in-law Naz Cugliari, chef and owner of Il Forno Restaurant in Hampton isn’t around, I strain the fettuccine and then place it into the frying pan with the cooked bacon (heat is off). I also put the egg yolk mixture straight into the frying pan with the fettuccine and do all the mixing in the pan – with the parsley, salt and pepper, and parmesan. When it’s dished up, I add more Parmesan!


Some people use whole eggs, too … but Naz has since converted me to just using egg yolks. If you find the ‘sauce’ a little dry, or you love eggs, just use more egg yolks! This is the beauty of carbonara, it’s easy, delicious, and can be tweaked to taste!