Rep Note:
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
12 September 2018
¶ As a sign of my regression to childhood, no dish appeals to me more than spaghetti alla carbonara. It’s a marriage too good for heaven.
Spaghetti & Parmesan
Breakfast (Bacon and Egg)
To keep the dish from complete childishness, a nice clump of parsley leaves is minced with the bacon (two slices). This mixture is stirred into well-buttered spaghetti (a lot of it), and then an egg yolk, which usually breaks on contact, is dropped in. I stir all this up with a pasta fork, and toss it into a bowl. Parmesan served separately.
For years, I dutifully used pancetta, the unsmoked Italian bacon, a slice of which I would brown in a little butter. But then I tired of such sophistication, and now I much prefer good old American bacon, which I zap in the microwave. It’s not supermarket bacon, though, but Schaller & Weber’s breakfast bacon, thickly sliced. Two minutes. Just the other day, I bought a small Corelle platter for the purpose — when clean, it lives in the microwave; how great is that! The bacon goes onto one small piece of paper towel and is covered with another.
The really odd thing is that I am never too tired to make carbonara, even though it has lots of moving parts, considering the number of ingredients. Most of them go straight into the dishwasher before the pasta is even cooked. The rest go into the empty pasta pot, and soak through dinner.
The best part is the satisfaction afterward, which can last for two or three hours. I could live on this, and maybe someday I will.