Carbonara

ArthurG

An italian friend suggested making carbonara in this way. Having made it, I'll never go back..... I used to use a lot of cream etc in carbonara, but I think this is far superior. If I'm doing it I'll usually make some fresh pasta, but good quality dried would suffice.

For 2 people:

Ham (smoked, boiled, lardons, streaky, whatever you like)
3 egg yolks and 1 whole egg (ideally organic)
Parmesan (grated)

(Sorry about quantities, I do it by eye)

1) Cook pasta and allow to cool - very important it is not scalding hot or egg will scramble (but not cold either)
2) Fry bacon in oil till browned
3) Mix pasta through bacon
4) Mix together egg yolks and parmesan, and mix through pasta - egg will cook slightly but not go lumpy and scrambled
5) Serve with grated parmesan

Quick, easy and delicious.

Justask

Yum....I have always wanted an easy recipe for this

Thanks a mill

Justask

They do bacon bits in Lidl in a double pack, I think they are under 3 euro for the 2... I think they would work well with this.

Im bloody staving now :rolleyes:

sonic.trip

ArthurG wrote: »

An italian friend suggested making carbonara in this way. Having made it, I'll never go back..... I used to use a lot of cream etc in carbonara, but I think this is far superior. If I'm doing it I'll usually make some fresh pasta, but good quality dried would suffice.

For 2 people:

Ham (smoked, boiled, lardons, streaky, whatever you like)
3 egg yolks and 1 whole egg (ideally organic)
Parmesan (grated)

(Sorry about quantities, I do it by eye)

1) Cook pasta and allow to cool - very important it is not scalding hot or egg will scramble (but not cold either)
2) Fry bacon in oil till browned
3) Mix pasta through bacon
4) Mix together egg yolks and parmesan, and mix through pasta - egg will cook slightly but not go lumpy and scrambled
5) Serve with grated parmesan

Quick, easy and delicious.

I was looking for a recipe the other day and made one similar to this except i used 2 egg yolks and a tiny bit of cream, I must try it with a whole egg and yolks. Also when I mixed it in I turned off the heat and let the pasta cook the egg/Parmesan sauce.

BailMeOut

The trick with this dish is that the eggs must be at room temperature. If you keep your eggs in fridge just make sure you take them out well in advance.

I usually add some defrosted peas too.

TTWNF

this is the recipe i use... yum!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1cUwX4Xzt0

longshanks

TTWNF wrote: »

this is the recipe i use... yum!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1cUwX4Xzt0

Thats how I do it too

sonic.trip

Looks like a nice recipe, nearly the same as the one I used only I mixed the egg/cheese together.

unkel

TTWNF wrote: »

this is the recipe i use... yum!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1cUwX4Xzt0

Thanks for that!

Made it that way, and it tasted exactly the same as you'd get it in a half decent Italian restaurant. Will be a regular for me

TTWNF

yeah its a regular for me too... Rick Stein is the man!!! the pecorino can be picked up in Fallon & Byrne

triseke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcKFVy4TQXI

This is the recipe I use. Absolutely gorgeous. The guys on this youtube show have great recipes, and are generally easy to make.

n0irin

I've done a similar one a few times, and I've varied the amount of cream each time from none to 4 tablespoons, and my favourite has been when I've put two tablespoons of cream - yum. I'll have to make it again soon...

unkel

Really, folks. The one thing that stopped me from trying carbonara in the past is that I too thought it was a recipe needing cream. Which I don't normally buy / have / want to use

Carbonara does NOT use cream. Please, please, please try an appropriate Italian carbonara recipe like the Rick Stein one in the link from TTWNF. Restaurant quality food in minutes. Proper taste of carbonara. And did I mention, no cream needed?

Walter Sobchak III

unkel wrote: »

Really, folks. The one thing that stopped me from trying carbonara in the past is that I too thought it was a recipe needing cream. Which I don't normally buy / have / want to use

Carbonara does NOT use cream. Please, please, please try an appropriate Italian carbonara recipe like the Rick Stein one in the link from TTWNF. Restaurant quality food in minutes. Proper taste of carbonara. And did I mention, no cream needed?

Please, please no cream. An Italian friend tells me pasta, egg, pancetta, herbs. Nothing else.

Walter Sobchak III

Walter Sobchak III wrote: »

Please, please no cream. An Italian friend tells me pasta, egg, pancetta, herbs. Nothing else.

Sorry forgot the cheese

martic

Donal Skehan made one on Kitchen Hero the other night, its the same way I make it myself except I use spaghetti and it gorgeous, the small amount of cooking water from the pasta really helps to make a nice creamy sauce, ohhhh and I love a good amount of black pepper in it. After the advert the recipe starts at around 3.25

http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1116353

aidan_walsh

Nuts, had the pan heat too high so the egg scrambled a little while mixing it through. Still damned tasty though, so looking forward to trying it again.

vibe666

unkel wrote: »

Really, folks. The one thing that stopped me from trying carbonara in the past is that I too thought it was a recipe needing cream. Which I don't normally buy / have / want to use

Carbonara does NOT use cream. Please, please, please try an appropriate Italian carbonara recipe like the Rick Stein one in the link from TTWNF. Restaurant quality food in minutes. Proper taste of carbonara. And did I mention, no cream needed?

ditto, you can't go wrong with this one, so simple and so tasty.

one thing i usually do is the wife doesn't like it if it gets too dry, so i keep a cup of the pasta water to moisten it if too much moisture evaporates before i can serve it to keep it nice and juicy.

you might only need a splash (or none at all), but it's a quick save if yours starts to dry out.

another trick i use is to drain the pasta quickly and throw it back into the empty pan with everything else and the residual heat is usually enough to cook the egg and melt the cheese just right, but if not then a few seconds back on the heat will do the trick.

also, i know i'm a charlatan for even mentioning it, but petit pois go really nicely in it for a change and the dish is also very good with some prawns and/or other seafood such as mussels instead of the bacon/ham pieces.

i like to sautée off raw black tiger prawns (can be bough very cheap from the frozen section of asian supermarkets) sliced lengthways the same way you'd cut a lobster in half and they go all twisty like curly fries and get loads of the juices stuck in the twists. om nom nom.

unkel

vibe666 wrote: »

i keep a cup of the pasta water to moisten it if too much moisture evaporates before i can serve it to keep it nice and juicy.

That's clever. Making it tonight so will do just that!

Last time I got it right, but that was just lucky (quick drain of the pasta and then straight in with the bacon + one ladle of pasta water). But threw pasta water out then, before I knew it would be moist enough

vibe666

i always do it before draining any pasta, it just seems like a better bet than just using plain water to moisten up dishes that are drying out.

my other handy pasta tip is if your pasta is going to end up cooked too early, plunge it into plenty of cold water to stop the cooking process when its al dente and then when you're ready to serve, back into freshly boiling water to finish it off and get it back up to temp.

unkel

I always do something like that!

When the consistency is to my liking I tip the pasta straight from the pan into a colander and then put the cold tap of running water over it for about 10s. This stops the pasta cooking any further and it keeps the consistency as you liked it. I call it to "frighten" the pasta

Of course you have to serve it straight away then