Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

* Exported from MasterCook *

SPAGHETTI ALLA CARBONARA

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Pasta Usenet

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1/2 lb Pancetta or bacon
2 tb Olive oil
1 tb Butter
4 Garlic cloves, peeled
-and lightly crushed
1/4 c White wine, dry
Salt
1 lb Thin spaghetti
3 Eggs
1/4 c Peccorino romano cheese,
-freshly grated
1/2 c Parmesan cheese,
-freshly grated
Black pepper,
-freshly ground
2 tb Parsley, chopped fine

Cut the pancetta or bacon into thin strips.

Put the oil, butter and crushed garlic into a saucepan
or small saute pan and turn on the heat to
medium-high. When the garlic becomes colored a deep
gold, remove and discard it.

Put the pancetta or bacon into the pan and saute until
it begins to be crisp at the edges. Add the wine and
let it boil away for a minute or two; then turn off
the heat.

In a large pot, bring about 4-5 quarts water to a
boil. Add about 2-3 T salt, and when the water
returns to a boil, put in the spaghetti.

Take the bowl from which you'll be serving the
spaghetti later, and into it break the three eggs.
Beat them lightly, then mix into them both grated
cheeses, a liberal grinding of pepper, and the parsley.

When the spaghetti is tender but firm to the bite,
drain it and put it into the serving bowl with the
egg-and-cheese mixture. toss rapidly and thoroughly
until it is well-coated.

Reheat the pancetta or bacon quickly over high heat,
then pour the entire contents of the pan over the
spaghetti. Toss again thoroughly and serve
immediately.

NOTES:

* Spaghetti with raw eggs and Italian bacon -- While
there are innumerable minor variations in the way
people make this celebrated Roman dish, there are
really only two substantially different schools of
thought. One maintains that pancetta, a mild, cured,
unsmoked Italian bacon, is the only correct bacon to
use. The other school insists on the smoked American
variety. Both are good, and both are popular in Italy,
but the version I prefer is the one with pancetta. The
flavor of smoke is not usually associated with Italian
food; certainly hardly ever outside of Alto Adige, a
German-speaking region in the North that was once part
of Austria. In this dish, I find that smoked bacon
adds a sharpness that wearies the palate after the
first bite-fulls. Try it both ways and decide for
yourself.

: Difficulty: moderate.
: Time: 20 minutes.
: Precision: Approximate measurement OK.

: Katherine Rives Albitz
: Hewlett-Packard, Ft. Collins, Colorado, USA
: hplabs!hpfcla!hpcnof!k_albitz

: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust



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