Spaghetti Al Carbonara

OK kids, its recipe time again.

This is one of my favorite, and comes to you courtesy of one of my old art history professors who claims to have picked this up from the chef at a restaurant in Rome.  I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love this recipe who isn’t a cardiologist.

In short, it’s spaghetti with eggs and bacon.  What’s not to love?

Start out with this short list of ingredients:

Spaghetti (about 2/3lb)

Bacon (1/2 to 3/4lb)

Heavy cream (a dash)

Parmesan cheese (1/3cup)

and black pepper

First up, get all that bacon cooked and chopped up into delicious little bits.  This is the longest, most involved part of the entire recipe.

Next up, boil some water and get the spaghetti cooking.  Once it’s al-dente it’s time for the fun to begin.

Here’s the fun part of this recipe: it uses only the residual heat of the noodles to cook the eggs.

The trick here is two-fold. First you have to be quick about it.  Drain the spaghetti, toss it all back in the pot and quickly crack 2-3 eggs over the top of the piping-hot noodles.

The second “trick” is to have faith that it’s actually going to work. Stir the eggs and noodles for about 45-60 seconds and you should see little white flecks of cooked egg clinging to the sides of the noodles.

Finish it all up by stirring in the cream, Parmesan cheese, black pepper and (of course) bacon.

Now sit down and enjoy a big plate of what is likely the tastiest thing you’ve ever put in your face.

Tags: eggs, Food