The saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, but in this case not even the picture can accurately portray the heaven-on-earth that is the Pasta Carbonara from the Pioneer Woman's site. I promised Jenny, one of the winners from my Sesame Noodles cookbook contest, that I would give this carbonara a try, and so I did.
Right after we finished the last bite, I went to my recipe collection and tossed out my other three pasta carbonara recipes. Sorry guys, but there is no way on earth I will ever make any other carbonara recipe ever again in my life. This is Carbonara Perfection. Once I recovered from the sheer bliss of eating it, I tried to figure out what the difference is...after all carbonara is a relatively simple dish comprised of pasta tossed with scrambled eggs and bacon.
Well, this one also includes garlic. And white wine. And BUTTER. And a lot of bacon, and some parsley, and a tiny bit more of an elaborate process in terms of putting it all together that is totally worth the little bit of extra effort. I made it on a Friday night for me and the Southern husband...and then turned around and made it AGAIN for my scrumptious Italian friend and her adorable husband and my sister 48 hours later, because I couldn't bear for anyone I loved to go one more second without tasting this. (And maybe because I wanted to have it again. I cannot tell a lie.)
The only teeny departure I made from the original recipe was to mix in the bacon at the very end. I like my carbonara bacon just a bit crispy...but that's just me. You should feel totally free to be you, carbonara-wise, when you make yours. Now go make it, so that not one more minute goes by before you taste this.
PASTA CARBONARA, only slightly adapted from Pioneer Woman
* 1lb linguine pasta
* 4 eggs
* 1 pound bacon or pancetta
* 1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese
* 8-12 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 1 cup chicken stock
* 1 cup white wine (or substitute another cup of stock)
* 1/2 stick of butter
* 1 handful of parsley
* 1-2 tablespoons black pepper
1. Cut bacon into pieces about one inch wide. Cook until browned and crisp and set aside, saving bacon grease in the skillet.
2. Cook linguine in salted water cook until al dente.
3. Add chopped onions to bacon grease and let them cook down over a medium-high heat for a couple of minutes.
4. After the onions have cooked for a couple of minutes, throw in the garlic. Adding it after the onions have cooked a little will prevent the garlic from burning. After the onion and garlic have cooked for another couple of minutes, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. Discard the grease.
5. Place the pan back on high heat until it starts to smoke a little. As soon as the pan begins to smoke, pour in the white wine (or chicken stock). Whisk until pan is thoroughly deglazed and all of the brown bits have come off of the bottom of the pan. Add 1 cup of chicken stock. Return onion and garlic to the pan. Let simmer over medium heat.
6. Crack four eggs into a large bowl. Add most of the Parmesan cheese, and roughly chop the parsley, adding it into the eggs as well. Leave a little Parmesan and parsley out for a garnish. Mix well with a fork.
5. Add the cooked hot pasta to the egg mixture and then add the onion mixture. Stir in ½ stick (1/4 cup) of butter and the cooked bacon. Mix it all together well. Pepper to taste. Garnish with parmesan and parsley. Throw out all previous carbonara recipes.
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