Boil 3L water in a 4L pot with 1/2 Tbs salt. Add 80g pasta and simmer 20 minutes.
Remove the pasta and leave all the water. Top up to 3L. Heat a ceramic large bowl to very warm.
Add the Fetticinni to the boiling water and cook a minute or so less than the instructions state.

Dice the bacon and saute in the butter at medium low temp while the pasta cooks.
Whisk the egg yolks and add in 30g of the parmesan. Whisk well.
3 mins before the pasta is cooked take 1/2 cup of water from the pasta pot and stand.
Turn off the frypan and scoop the pasta into the fry pan and swirl through.

Transfer to the heated bowl. Add a small amount of water to the egg mixture to temper and pour through the pasta while swirling. Add the remaining water. Add the remaining parmesan. Add the pepper. Using a spoon swirl and whip the pasta mixture quite aggressively for a minute. As the egg heats it will thicken. It will still be a little runny. Return to the frypan over medium heat and swirl 30 seconds or so till the correct consistency is achieved.

Serve immediately with shaved parmesan, parsley and garlic bread. See below.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crush and finely chop all the garlic. Roughly chop the parsley. Combine well with the butter and salt in a small bowl. Let stand for an hour.

Take 1 roll and cut across into 15mm pieces. Generously butter both sides of each piece and reassemble. Wrap in foil. Repeat with another roll. Set aside. This should have used less than half the garlic butter.

Thin out the remaining butter around the side of the bowl to about 5mm thick. Refrigerate for 1 hour or more.

Bake the foil rolls in a 180° oven for 35 minutes. Remove from the foil and set in a bowl. Serve immediately.
Meanwhile:: Remove the garlic butter from the refrigerator and set on the bench for 5 minutes. Take 2 rolls and cut lengthways into 3 pieces. Top, bottom and middle. Toast till dark with charcoal appearing on the edges, (both sides on the middle pieces)

Scrap off lashings of cold garlic butter from around the bowl and just spread thickly on each piece. Cut into 3 pieces. Serve immediately.



80g Pasta (any kind)

150g Fetticinni Pasta
60g Bacon
20g Butter salted
40g Parmesan grated
2 egg yolks
Cracked pepper
Shaved parmesan and parsley Garnish

Optional::
Mushrooms, garlic, peas, onion, whatever.

------------------------------------------------
4 Tip Top Hot dog rolls
250g salted butter at room temp
8 cloves of Garlic
Handful of Parsley
1 tsp Salt

You would think that artisan french sticks or bakery rolls would be better but they are not. The commercial Tip Top roll is best.

Never even think about using a sour dough roll. Just will not toast or bake correctly.
Most Carbonara's on cafe menus are well below par. It's a coating not a sauce. It's so easy to scramble the egg or add too much salt etc. Not that easy to cook in large quantities. Really does need to be cooked quickly in small quantities and served immediately. You need to condition your pasta water by over cooking a small amount of any pasta ahead of time. The extra starch in the water is required to get the best outcome. Aggressively whipping the pasta in a heated ceramic bowl is how you get that silky texture.

Bacon and parmesan are my baseline. Typically in my fridge. But the better the cured pork and tastier the cheese the better the outcome. Technique remains the same.

I always serve with my two versions of Garlic bread. A baked version is great but my toasted version takes garlic bread to a new level. Just as good as garlic bread can be.  Eating too many pieces of this can be a bit over the top, a real indulgence. Hence I do the baked version as well to lighten it up a bit.
Click Image
carbonara pasta recipe

copyright 2012  LB designs