How to Carbonara

 

Illustrated by Owen Lee

I love pasta. Period. There is no questioning or doubts about my love towards pasta. For many years, I cooked pasta at home just to get the feel of dining at a fancy Italian restaurant when I am broke. Come to think about the cost of pasta dishes, I think making a homemade pasta dish is comparably inexpensive because of how simple the ingredients are. So, for today, I am introducing the basic pasta dish besides Alio olio, which is carbonara.  

Growing up as non-Italian, I was more used to carbonara with cream (I apologize for the Italians out there). So, I didn’t know how original carbonara looked/tasted like. It was just couple weeks ago when I was introduced to making the original Italian carbonara without the cream. Well, as a lactose intolerant person, I think this recipe is way better than the one with cream (though it does contain cheese).

Ingredients (serving for 2 people):

·         Parmesan cheese (40 g) + cheese grinder

·         2 Egg yolks

·         Pancetta 100g or bacon (2 strips)

·         Salt and pepper

·         Olive oil (3 spoons)

·         Pasta noodle (wholewheat: I don’t know the terminology for different sizes of pasta, but I use the thin one) (200g)

The steps are easy and simple:

1.      Add 700ml to 1L of water to boil in a pot.

2.      Add salt and pepper to the water.

3.      Once the water is boiling, add the pasta noodles for 15 mins.

4.      Meanwhile, prepare egg yolks by separating the egg white (I use the egg whites to make meringue cookies (I’ll post a recipe about this too in later time).

5.      In a bowl of egg yolks, add your parmesan cheese by grinding them (the fun part). Then mix until you get even texture.

6.      Cook your sliced pancetta or bacon in a pan (you’ll have some grease sipping out of the meat as you cook).

7.      Turn off the heated pan and add some olive oil, the egg cheese mixture and pasta into the pan (make sure that your pan is not too hot or else it will cook the egg yolks into bulks).

8.      Mix all the ingredients until you get a smooth creamy carbonara.