Carbonara! One of my favorite pasta dishes of all time.

I absolutely love Pasta Carbonara. It truly is one of my favorite pasta dishes of all time. It’s up there with Chicken Parm and real deal, authentic Italian Pasta Alfredo.

Contrary to popular belief, just like in authentic Italian Alfredo, there is no cream in authentic Carbonara. It’s egg, cheese, meat (and meat fat), black pepper, and a little pasta water. That’s it! No cream. No butter.

I’ll spare you the story about how it’s believed to have gotten its name, and get right in to what you’ll need…

• 8 ounces of one of the three following cured pork meats: Guanciale (Italian cured pork jowl which is hard to find but the traditional meat for this), Pancetta (Italian cured pork belly which is unsmoked – check your deli counter at your local grocery store), or … as an absolute last resort, bacon (unsmoked if you can get it)
• 5 egg yolks, and 1 whole egg
• 1/2 cup of a mixture of grated/shredded Parmigiano Reggiano (DO NOT USE “Parmesean” in that shaker plastic jar, with all that cellulose crap in it – it’s garbage. You can do better and I expect you to! Buy the real stuff at your deli counter and shred it yourself if you have to) and Peccorino Romano
• 1lb of your favorite stick/ribbon pasta (Papparedelle, Tagliatelle, Fettuccine, Linguine, Bucatini, Spaghetti, etc – Linguine, Bucatini, or Spaghetti would be the best for this. I used Linguine here, because we have a lot of it.) cooked to the package directions for al dente
• 1/2 tsp of fresh cracked black pepper (more if you like it spicier)

I got Pancetta because Guanciale is too difficult to find here. I had it sliced at the deli counter on “4” so it’s pretty thick for sliced meat. I could have probably even gone with “6”, but you know how it is. Anyway, go ahead and cut up the Pancetta into about thumbnail sized chunks. Cook it on medium low to render out the fat slowly, and once it’s starting to brown up nicely, kill the heat to allow it to continue to cook softly until it starts to cool down. Remove the cooked pork into its own bowl, and… Keep the fat. Keep The Fat. KEEP THE FAT! Seriously… keep it. You’ll need some of it for the sauce, and the rest can be added to your container of bacon grease next to your stove. You do have one of those, right? RIGHT? If not, why not? DO IT. You’ll thank me.

As your pork is rendering, put the 5 yolks and one egg, along with the cheese mixture and the cracked black pepper into a large metal bowl. I use stainless steel. Make sure it’s metal… you need the metal for the next egg step. Plastic won’t cut it. Once it’s all in the bowl, whisk all that awesomeness together, buddy!

Start the water for the pasta, and salt that water to the point that it tastes like the sea. *THIS* is how you properly season pasta water for use with most sauces. It has to be just beyond mildly SALTY. Do not just use a tablespoon of salt in the amount of water needed to cook a pound of pasta. Bring it up to temp, just under a boil, but a good simmer. Add your pasta and stir it as it softens to keep it from sticking together. This is more of a problem with the cheaper stuff.

Now… for those that are scared of “uncooked” eggs… I’ve got your covered. It’s a little extra work, but, hell, you are looking for some peace of mind, I guess. Here ya go… as the pasta is cooking, hold the egg mixture bowl over the cooking pasta (that is NOT boiling, only simmering), and use it like a double boiler. Whisk the egg mixture over the steamy pasta water and allow the eggs to get to about 160 F (71 C) so you essentially pasteurize them. You want to softly get them there. Don’t let the bowl hit the water or sit in it. You’ll scramble the eggs. You really don’t need this step, just throwing it out there for people who are afraid of “uncooked” eggs. I’ve done it countless times without “pasteurizing” the eggs and haven’t had any issues, yet.

After the pasta is al dente, use a pasta fork or tongs to take the pasta out of the water (DO NOT DUMP the pasta/water into a colander) and place the pasta directly into the egg mix, and toss it to start the sauce. As you toss it, add a little pasta water to thin it out a bit, and then drizzle some of the reserved pork fat in as well, and continue to softly toss the pasta, repeating with the pasta water and pork fat until the sauce begins to form and smooth out. It may look like you’re cooking the eggs, like in a couple of my pictures, but you’re actually melting the cheese and it’s clumping a little. The more you toss with the little bit of pasta water and pork fat, the more smooth the sauce will become. I promise. Don’t fret. Once the sauce is at the consistency you want, and it’s nice and smooth, add the cooked pork and toss it all together again.

Plate that gorgeous pasta, meat, and sauce, and sprinkle a little more pepper and grated cheese on it, and enjoy the hell out of your hard work.