Post by oldstuffer on Mar 3, 2019 18:37:01 GMT -5
Sounds exotic, so it sounds difficult, but it isn't either, and it's become a staple around here the last 5 or 6 years.
Essentially it's spaghetti in a bacon-cheese sauce with black pepper for a bite back.
Dice (cut into about 3/8" to 1/2" squares) Bacon, and fine dice some onion as well.
Mince some garlic.
fry up diced bacon (we use about 3 pieces per person here) with onion (at least 1/2 a medium here for 3 people), add Garlic at the end and shut the pan off, plenty of heat left to cook the Garlic without scorching it.
Grate about a cup of Parmesan Cheese, mix with 4 eggs (1/2 cup and 2 eggs per person), add at least a teaspoon per 2 eggs of fresh ground black pepper.
Make spaghetti, until al-dente in a fairly minimal amount of (salted) water. This puts a lot of starch in the water from the pasta.
When the pasta is done, DO NOT DUMP THE WATER (yet).
Put the bacon pan back on low heat, put about 1/2 Cup of pasta water (more if it is too thick still to start, for 3 of us I use a full cup of water.) in the pan, add the egg/cheese mixture, stir to combine well.
Start putting the pasta in the pan, roll, mix, continue until all the pasta is added, and the sauce thickens up, doesn't take long.
The "trick" is to heat the eggs to thicken the sauce into what is basically a custard, with the help of the starch-water as an additional thickener, WITHOUT SCRAMBLING THE EGGS.
The hot pasta helps to do this (cook the eggs without overcooking them).
Made this for lunch today.
A million possible variation on the above theme.
We do another version that adds tomato paste while cooking the onion separately from the bacon.
Another based in Breakfast Sausage with a "finishing crumble" composed of bread crumbs, parsley, and orange zest.
Eggs,,,,,,,,, not just for breakfast.
Essentially it's spaghetti in a bacon-cheese sauce with black pepper for a bite back.
Dice (cut into about 3/8" to 1/2" squares) Bacon, and fine dice some onion as well.
Mince some garlic.
fry up diced bacon (we use about 3 pieces per person here) with onion (at least 1/2 a medium here for 3 people), add Garlic at the end and shut the pan off, plenty of heat left to cook the Garlic without scorching it.
Grate about a cup of Parmesan Cheese, mix with 4 eggs (1/2 cup and 2 eggs per person), add at least a teaspoon per 2 eggs of fresh ground black pepper.
Make spaghetti, until al-dente in a fairly minimal amount of (salted) water. This puts a lot of starch in the water from the pasta.
When the pasta is done, DO NOT DUMP THE WATER (yet).
Put the bacon pan back on low heat, put about 1/2 Cup of pasta water (more if it is too thick still to start, for 3 of us I use a full cup of water.) in the pan, add the egg/cheese mixture, stir to combine well.
Start putting the pasta in the pan, roll, mix, continue until all the pasta is added, and the sauce thickens up, doesn't take long.
The "trick" is to heat the eggs to thicken the sauce into what is basically a custard, with the help of the starch-water as an additional thickener, WITHOUT SCRAMBLING THE EGGS.
The hot pasta helps to do this (cook the eggs without overcooking them).
Made this for lunch today.
A million possible variation on the above theme.
We do another version that adds tomato paste while cooking the onion separately from the bacon.
Another based in Breakfast Sausage with a "finishing crumble" composed of bread crumbs, parsley, and orange zest.
Eggs,,,,,,,,, not just for breakfast.