Recipe Review: Carbonara

August 26, 2014 by quirkyjazz Leave a comment

image by jlaceda via Flickr CC IMG_1300 carbonara

This Rachael Ray recipe for basic Carbonara is quick and easy.

I’ve made just a couple of tweaks, but it is still pretty much her original recipe (which you can see HERE.)

• About 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 pound pancetta or bacon, small dice
• 5 to 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (could use stock if you don’t have wine handy)
• 3 large egg yolks, separated.  Get rid of the egg whites in another recipe — you don’t need them for this.
• Salt and pepper
• 1 pound pasta such as linguine, spaghetti or egg tagliatelle.  I like the wider pasta for this recipe.
• Grated Pecorino Romano and/or Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

PREPARATION

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for pasta.

Heat olive oil, 3 turns of the pan, in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add pancetta or bacon, brown 3-4 minutes, then add garlic and some black pepper, and stir 2 minutes more. Add wine and reduce heat to low. Whisk up egg yolks and season with salt and pepper.

Add pasta to salted boiling water and cook to al dente.

Add 1 full cup of starchy cooking water to egg yolks in a slow stream to temper them. Reserve an extra half-cup starchy water in case the pasta gets too tight when you toss it.  Drain pasta and add to pancetta and garlic, remove from heat and toss with egg yolks and handfuls of grated cheeses, parsley, adjust salt and pepper to taste.

That’s it.  If you are the kind of person who always has bacon and parsley on hand, you could make this and be eating it in less than 1/2 hour.

Review:

Be careful when browning the bacon or pancetta.  It can easily burn since you are frying such small pieces.  Likewise, watch the garlic carefully when you add it.  With the already hot bacon grease, the garlic needs much less time than usual to get overly browned.

I didn’t read the recipe carefully enough at first and nearly whisked up the egg whites, too.  That would not work out very well, so don’t do that!  Also, DO take out the pasta water and keep out at least as much as she recommends.  Mine got pretty thick so I added a splash of milk, which may or may not be the Italian way.  I have no idea. It worked in a pinch. Have everything ready for the end — the cheese and the parsley.  It comes together in a flash.  Also — DO use the fresh flat-leave parsley if you can.  It really adds a nice fresh flavor.

Follow the steps for tempering the egg yolks carefully.  You don’t want the eggs to cook too soon.  They melt into the sauce and thicken it with the cheese.

The down side of this recipe is all the grease.  You don’t drain the bacon grease and that PLUS the olive oil adds up to quite a bit.

I suppose you could experiment with draining most of the bacon grease (maybe leave 1 T or so) and then add more water or cheese or something at the end.

I think a little lemon flavor and maybe some green onions would be nice in this.

It might also benefit from a dash of crushed red pepper flakes.

I might try some more variations in the future.  I will let you know when I do!

Overall:

FOUR out of FIVE FORKS!

Really quick and easy, but a little overboard on the oil/grease in my opinion.

Even my very picky nearly 16-year-old daughter ate it (after picking around all the “green stuff”).

Enjoy!  And, as always, please let me know if you try this recipe, how it turns out for you, and how you like it!

image via Flickr CC by cookbookman17; Fresh Parsley —
A bunch of fresh hand picked parsley. This parsley is bursting with flavor and ready for use.