Spaghetti carbonara

For me, a traditional carbonara is one of the greatest food pleasures the culinary world has to offer. It’s been a personal favourite for as long as I can remember and, when cooked properly, it’s simply too delicious for words.

Let's just have this out before we carry on… if you want to add double cream, garlic, peas, mushrooms, make an avocado version, yadda, yadda… I'm sure it’s delicious, but it’s not a carbonara, so call it something else! It takes only four ingredients to make this masterpiece - spaghetti, guanciale/pancetta, eggs and cheese. That’s it. End of discussion.

The perfect carbonara is one of those dishes as simple as it is technical. If you follow the steps it’s surprisingly easy and I swear to foodgods you won’t find it tastier anywhere else. You just need to respect the process. It’s about how furiously you toss the pasta in the hot pork fat, how to gently seduce the cheesy egg mix into coating each strand of pasta, knowing the temperature so not to scramble the eggs, you get the gist. Can you tell I have an intimate relationship with this dish? 😬

As always, the better the quality of produce, the better the dish. It really is worth trying to find some guanciale if you can. I still remember the first time my local Italian deli suggested it to me… I took it home, put it to the test and it completely blew my mind.

Right, enough… let’s go! Respect the process. Enjoy the simplicity.

Serves: 2

Prep time: Less than 5 mins

Cook time: Around 15 mins

Method

Read and familiarise yourself with this whole recipe before starting anything.

First up, prep all your ingredients so that everything's ready to go when you start cooking. Crack your eggs into a small bowl and gently beat them together. Pour your grated parmesan into the eggs, add a generous few twists of freshly ground black pepper and lightly stir to combine the mixture.

Fill your largest pot with water, bring to the boil and add plenty of salt. Don’t just half-fill it. Spaghetti needs room to dance around while it cooks! Pop a mug on the side next to your pasta pot for later. Depending on your pasta, the cook time will be anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes (see tips below), so check the packet and cook until al dente (still a little bit of bite, generally around a minute less than whatever the packet says).

Meanwhile, after 5 minutes, add a small glug of olive oil to a large, heavy based pan and cook your pancetta over a medium-high heat until it's browned and crispy. It should only take around 5 minutes and there should be plenty of fat rendered out.

Grab your mug and scoop out a mug-full of the pasta water before draining the spaghetti. Carefully and quickly tip the spaghetti straight into the bacon pan with the heat still on (enjoy the wonderful sizzle it makes), get your wooden spoon and TOSS, TOSS, TOSS! Keep it moving, don’t stop, keep tossing! Get right up with a good mix and once you’ve been furiously working your arm out for about 30 seconds, you can turn the heat off and reduce your action to a light stir while it slightly cools.

After stirring off the heat for another minute or so, pour in your egg mixture and continue to stir, gradually pouring in a splash of the reserved pasta water at a time until it all comes together into a creamy sauce, coating every strand of spaghetti. It should just drip off the pasta if you lift some out of the pan.

Plate up, add plenty of black pepper, a grating of the cheese e buon appetito! An authentic, delicious spaghetti carbonara.

TIPS

• Add salt to your pasta water only once it’s boiled - it takes longer to boil if you add it earlier.

• If your spaghetti packet says it takes anything less than 8 minutes to cook, throw it out and get some real spaghetti! You won’t be doing this dish justice, otherwise. (Please don’t actually throw it out! Just don’t use it for this dish)

• If your pancetta is done before you’re ready to throw the pasta in, just take it off the heat until you’re ready. Likewise, if your pasta is ready before the pancetta leave it in the colander with some silver foil over the top until the meat’s ready.

• This isn’t a dish to be made in advance or anything other than served immediately. It’s never going to be absolutely piping hot because of the risk of scrambling the eggs. It’s just how the dish is supposed to be. So don’t mess around once it’s ready - EAT!

• Get your pancetta from a good Italian deli instead of the supermarket. It’s always going to be a better quality, it tends to be cheaper pound for pound and it’s nice to help local, independent business.