Coal Miner’s Daughter—I mean, Spaghetti…

Writing my first real post for this blog the other day about the Neopolitan-style pizza and the tomato sauce I learned how to make with Mirella gave me a hankering for some good ol’ spaghetti alla carbonara (see About Me page). I made it last night for my sister and boyfriend. They seemed to enjoy it (see last photo at bottom of post).

Spaghetti alla carbonara literally means, “spaghetti in the style of the coal miner.” Legend has it that coal miners used to make/eat this dish because it doesn’t involve many ingredients and you can carry the cheese and meat around with you and then pick up some eggs from the henhouse on your way home at the end of the day, then quickly whip up this meal…or something like that. Who knows? No matter what the story, this dish is undeniably delectable and everyone should try it at least once.

 

In case you don’t know, this delicious pasta dish consists of spaghetti in a Parmigiano cheese, bacon, and cream sauce (how can you lose with that combo?). Some of you who are familiar with carbonara may exclaim, “But you’ve left out the main ingredient, Sherry! The eggs! MY GOD, THE EGGS!” Calmez-vous. I tend not to include this in the descriptor for those unfamiliar with this dish since it sometimes leads people to imagine a giant platter of pasta topped with scrambled eggs and bacon, which it definitely is not.

 

I learned this recipe while I was, you guessed it, living in Italy, but have tweaked it since then. Mirella showed me how to make the “real deal.” I say “real deal” in quotes because she is, after all, a native Florentine and this dish is traditionally Roman. It’s analogous to a native New Yorker having a fabulous recipe for fried chicken. But just because the recipe’s not completely authentic or hasn’t been handed down generations doesn’t mean it’s not good.

 

All I can say for sure is that this dish (and recipe) is fantastic. It’s so quick and easy you’ll wanna make it every other night (but practice some self-discipline and don’t, you’ll get fat, yeah…you will). The main thing about spaghetti alla carbonara is the technique, not so much the complexity of ingredients or number of ingredients.

 

Traditional Italian carbonara recipes call for guanciale (cured pork jowles), but guanciale is difficult to find. Americanized recipes for carbonara, instead, call for pancetta (Italian cured bacon, similar to American bacon, but not smoked and comes in round slices, not strips) which is delicious, but for this, I prefer regular smoked bacon (anything but maple smoked). I love how crispy bacon gets, as opposed to the more crusty chewiness of pancetta, plus regular bacon’s much easier to find at any supermarket. You’ll also notice I call for quite a bit of garlic. The number of garlic cloves really depends on how much you like garlic. I LOVE it so I always say the more the merrier, but I know not everyone shares my amorous opinion so if you’re not a huge fan, cut it to 2 cloves, instead of 5.

 

 

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

 

Serves 4.

 

1 lb spaghetti, snapped in half while still uncooked (or linguine)

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

1/3 lb bacon, diced into tiny cubes

2 cups (Approx.) Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated

4 large egg yolks, separated from their whites (whites discarded or saved for something else)

½ cup reserved pasta water

½ (Approx.) cup heavy cream or half and half

Salt and Pepper

 

• Boil a large pot of water for the pasta. Follow the instructions on the box for the timing and do not overcook the pasta. Another thing that’s important about the timing of the pasta is that you want all the other ingredients waiting for the spaghetti to finish cooking, not vice versa, because you must add the eggs and cream to the very hot pasta or else it won’t become the glistening, smooth sauce that it should. So if you think the rest of the process (chopping, mixing, sauteeing, etc.) will take you awhile, don’t start the recipe by boiling water for the pasta. Wait until you’ve gotten through a couple of steps to put the water on.

• Heat a frying or sautee pan over high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the bacon to the pan. Break up the bacon and spread it out so it’ll fry, not steam, and then leave it alone. Don’t keep stirring it or it won’t come out as exquisitely crisp as possible. After it has fried on one side for about 3 minutes, stir the bacon around so the other side will cook (don’t worry about literally flipping every single speck of bacon over). Let it fry until it’s completely cooked through, about another 3-4 minutes.

• While the bacon is cooking, whisk the egg yolks in a bowl. Add the cream, cheese, and lots of black pepper. Stir them all together. Set this aside (not in the fridge).

• Turn off the heat under the pan. Scoop out the bacon onto a plate (lined with paper towels to make yourself feel better about eating bacon and cream, if you’d like).

• Once the bacon is no longer searingly hot, add a couple of tablespoons of it to the egg and cream mixture to raise the temperature. This is called “tempering” the cream and it’s important because if you don’t, the cool cream might curdle when it hits the hot pasta. But if you’ve added the warm bacon to the eggs and cream, the overall temperature of the cream mixture will slowly and gradually rise, thus preventing curdling. If the bacon cools significantly you can add all of it to the cream mixture, but if it doesn’t, you can just add it to the spaghetti later.

• Dispose of excess bacon fat in the pan by pouring it into the garbage or in a bowl to cool first and then dump it (do not pour blisteringly hot oil/grease down the drain, it’s bad for the drain).

• Using the residual oil in the pan, heat up the pan again on medium heat (this shouldn’t take long since it’s probably still hot from the bacon). Add the garlic and cook until brown. Keep your eyes on it, garlic can go from golden, brown and delicious to black, burnt and nasty very quickly. This should take about 2-3 minutes. But also don’t be fooled by the black bits of bacon in the pan that cling to the garlic and make it look burnt. Just watch the garlic carefully and use your common sense that it wouldn’t have burned in 30 seconds and it’s probably just the bacon bits in the oil.

• At this point, the spaghetti should just be finished cooking. Reserve a cup of the water the pasta cooked in before draining. Drain the pasta and transfer it to a large pot or bowl. Working quickly, add the egg and cream mixture, garlic, and bacon (if you haven’t already incorporated it all into the cream mixture) to the pasta and stir vigorously and I mean, vigorously (I typically use two large wooden spoons or a big spatula and tongs). This is also very important so that your eggs become a sauce and not Sunday’s western scramble.

• If the pasta seems dry or there’s not enough sauce, pour in 2 tablespoons of the reserved pasta water at a time until it is sufficiently loose and stirrable; however, if it’s still clumping too much to stir easily after about 6 tablespoons, add a bit of cream about 2 tablespoons at a time so the sauce doesn’t get too watery and bland. If you’ve added extra water and cream, I would suggest adding more cheese as well. Taste and add salt if necessary.

• Serve immediately.