[Sca-cooks] Pasta Carbonara and Eggs Benedict

[Antonia di Benedetto Calvo]

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
> On Dec 23, 2009, at 9:07 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:
>
>   
>> Wow. Definitely not what I had come to know as "pasta Carbonara". I still like what I've had, but would like to try these others some day.
>>     
>
> Put salted water on to boil. In a saute pan, heat a little olive oil and fry some shredded bacon, prosciutto, pancetta or, ideally, guanciale, which is a cured hog jowl. Add and sweat some onion, and chopped garlic. Some people add chopped sweet peppers as well, but this isn't strictly necessary.
>   
I'd call the onion unnecessary and the peppers positively extraneous.

> Place the contents of your pan (including the fat) in a mixing bowl, crack in two eggs (more or less, depending on the amount of pasta you're going to cook), and add some grated cheese. Mix all.
>   
You can use whole eggs or whole eggs + extra yolks.

> Boil pasta, drain and add to bowl while there's still a little bit of water, maybe two tablespoons or so, adhering to the pasta. 

Work fast!  You need to dump the pasta into the colander and then 
immediately transfer it to the egg bowl.

> Toss with the egg-pork-cheese-onion mixture. The egg will begin to cook from the heat of the pasta in the bowl, and coat it. Some will curdle a bit, some will remain rather runny (this is really why some people add cream, basically to disguise this, but it really is unnecessary).
>   

Mmm... custardy. It helps if you start with room-temperature eggs.

> Add ground pepper, maybe more cheese and some chopped parsley, and serve.
>   

Or eat it directly from the mixing bowl.  whatever :-)



-- 
Antonia di Benedetto Calvo

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Habeo metrum - musicamque,
hominem meam. Expectat alium quid?
-Georgeus Gershwinus
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