Title: Biagio's Spaghetti Carbonara
Categories: Pasta, Italian
Yield: 3 servings
1 lb Spaghetti (thin), 1/2 c Cold water
-rotini or equivalent 1/4 c Italian white wine,
-pasta -dry
2 tb Olive oil 4 Eggs
1/2 lb Pancetta or bacon 4 tb Heavy cream
1 md Yellow onion 8 tb Parmesan cheese
-(chopped) -(grated)
Put large bowl in oven to warm at lowest possible setting. Soak chopped
onion in cold water for 15 minutes to reduce pungency. Chop Pancetta or
bacon into 1/4-inch x 1-inch strips.
Beat eggs and cream together with a fork. Add about 4 T Parmesan cheese to
the mixture.
Wash pasta. Put on water to cook pasta. Add pasta when boiling. In the
meantime...
Dry onions and saute with pancetta or bacon in olive oil until onions are
barely translucent. Add wine and reduce heat when initial boiling ceases.
Meat should not be crisp.
When pasta is cooked, drain, but DO NOT WASH. Quickly remove bowl from
oven, put pasta in it and toss with egg, cream and cheese mixture so that
heat from pasta cooks eggs. Add meat, onions and wine without draining fat
and toss until thoroughly mixed. Sprinkle remaining cheese to taste, toss
and serve immediately.
NOTES:
* Spaghetti Carbonara, Neapolitan Style -- My wife and I had the pleasure
of staying at the Villa Virgiliana (owned by The Vergilian Society) in
Cuma, Italy just outside of Naples in June, 1985. Biagio and Maria
Sgariglia, the proprietors of the villa, served us excellent Italian farm
meals for a week, each meal being more delicious than the last. This dish
was the gastronomic highlight of our stay.
* Pasta should be cooked AL DENTE so that it offers resistance to the
teeth without crunching. Fresh pasta is desirable (dried pasta is a poor
imitation of the real thing.) Pasta should be used immediately when done so
as to stop its internal cooking. If both portions of the recipe cannot be
completed at the same time, the meat and onion mixture should finish first.
* I have made a very successful variation on this using hot country
sausage. Make sure the sausage is fairly lean if you try it, however. All
of the quantities are adjustable and may depend on the kind of pasta or
meat you use. Too much cream will cause the egg mixture to separate from
the pasta and meat. Too little cream will essentially give you scrambled
eggs and bacon with pasta.
: Difficulty: moderate to hard (timing is critical).
: Time: 30 minutes.
: Precision: measure the ingredients.
: Byron Howes
: North Carolina Education Computing Service, Research Triangle Park, NC
: bch@ecsvax or {akgua,decvax}!mcnc!ecsvax!bch
