Everybody can make pasta carbonara!

I remember my first time making pasta carbonara. Well, it ended in disaster. The pasta was overcooked to the point of clumping. The sauce was gloopy (I made it with corn starch….cue /screams of horror). The bacons were cremated. Yeap, it was that bad.

But those days are behind me. I can now make pretty decent basic pasta carbonara and the steps are incredibly simple too! Don’t believe me? Read on…

# – Creamy, porky, bacon carbonara pasta!

The ingredients:

• 4 egg yolks
• 150ml of whole milk (you can use cream but that’s just naughty, isn’t it?)
• 4 slices of back bacon (or 8, or 12 if you’re in the mood!)
• 140 grams of pasta or enough for 2 people (I used spaghetti, but you can use other types too)
• 2 spoonfuls of butter
• 3/4 tablespoon of salt
• Ground black pepper for taste

# – First of all, cut the back bacons into strips. Make sure every strip has bits of fat attached ;)

# – On medium flame, dump the bacon strips into a pan to brown. There’s no need for additional oil as the bacon will produce its own grease. Stir around occasionally.

# – After about 10 minutes, they will look like this. Turn off the flame and set aside.

# – Now in a bowl, pour the milk into 4 egg yolks.

# – Add 3/4 tablespoon of salt.

# – Followed by a dash of black pepper.

# – Whisk with a fork till everything’s combined like this…

# – Now cook the pasta according to instructions on its packet.

# – Then drain the pasta and put it back into the pot it was cooked in. Add two dollops of butter.

# – And now, pour in the eggy mixture into the pasta.

# – Dump 3/4 of the cooked bacon strips into the pasta. Stir till pasta, bacon and the carbonara sauce are well mixed. If you find the sauce a bit too watery for your taste, you could actually put the pan on low heat and stir till the sauce looks a bit reduced and thicker…be observant though as you don’t want dry carbonara pasta. Dry carbonara pasta is nasty, trust me I know!

# – Plate it and garnish with the leftover bacon strips.

# – Simple, delicious, comforting pasta carbonara, DONE!

This is also a great recipe when you’ve got a surplus of egg yolks. I make meringues once a week so I’ve got a lot of egg yolks lying around waiting to be turned into yumminess.

You’d probably notice that there isn’t any cheese in this recipe. Well, you could put it in of course, but for a cheese fiend like myself, I was surprised to find this carbonara rather decadent without the cheese even. Who am I to dictate though? :)