Tuesday, July 19, 2011

pasta carbonara

guest blog with emily knoelke

i am having one h-e-double hockey sticks (keeping the language kid-friendly) of a week. my husband and i just moved into our first home four weeks ago, and already we are jumping right into the joys of homeownership. flooded basement, check; broken water heater, check; electricity shut off, check and check…did i mention this all happened within 24 hours? so, last night in the midst of the chaos, i turned to one of my favorite recipes for some good old fashioned food therapy. nothing like creamy bacon & pasta goodness to make a girl feel better. that, and a glass of wine…

pasta carbonara

1lb bacon
2tbsp olive oil
1lb spaghetti
4 eggs
5oz parmesan cheese
red pepper flakes (to taste)
one bunch of asparagus (optional)

1. cook the fat in the fat. put the 2tbsp olive oil in a frying pan over medium high heat (any higher and you’ll be covered in pin size burns from the popping oil- learned that lesson the hard way). cut the bacon into small chunks and add to the oil.
2. while the bacon is cooking, heat up the water to cook the spaghetti noodles. add lots of salt to the water- when it tastes like the ocean, it’s perfect. cook the noodles according to the package directions. optional: last few minutes of the pasta cooking (i’d say about 4-5), throw in bite size pieces of asparagus. my personal preference is to keep the asparagus crispy- if you like it more on the mushy side, throw it in right away with the pasta. when you drain the pasta, save some of the salty water- more to come on that.
3. beat 4 eggs in a large bowl (large enough to hold the spaghetti). add the 5 oz of parmesan cheese, and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes (optional) and mix.
4. when the bacon is cooked nice and crispy, drain the oil/grease into a glass container. take 4 tbsp of the oil/grease mixture and add it to the egg/parmesan cheese mixture. throw your spaghetti noodles (and asparagus) and bacon  and toss it with the egg/parmesan/grease mixture.
5. if necessary, you can add some of the salt water to make it more creamy. generally, i never have to, but if you like it extra creamy, add salty water until you get the consistency you enjoy.  
6. (my favorite step) stuff your face until your flooded basement sorrows go away and you drift into a food induced coma.

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