The Carbonara Story

I learned how to cook a few things in college, as most guys do.  I could make a very good spaghetti sauce, and also knew how to stir-fry.  I like cooking, and I'm pretty adventurous with spices.  I also recognize that that kind of cooking is different from "make-some-food-fast-because-we-have-so-many-other-things-to-do-and-we're-already-late", which is more common and a lot less fun.

Here at home I've typically done about 10% of the dinner cooking, if that -- for years I've gotten home too late from work to make dinner in time for everyone.  I always did the kitchen cleanup and the dishes, which isn't a totally fair trade, but it's what I could do.

One dish I did pick up along the way was Spaghetti Carbonara.  I got the recipe from a cookbook, adapted it a little, made it a few times, and it got to be a house favorite -- it's really good, and kinda fun to cook.  Until recently it was the only dish the kids thought I could make.  I'm sure by now I've made it 50 times, but somehow it's never exactly the same twice.

One time early on (Carbonara batch #10?) Rach was on her way home, Kathy and Sheila were coming over, and I was doing my thing in the kitchen, when I saw we were out of crushed garlic -- a key ingredient.  I did find some fresh garlic, which I'd never cooked with before, but I was sure I could figure it out.  The recipe called for one clove, so I took one of the hunks of fresh garlic, opened it up, peeled all the little pieces, crushed them in the garlic press, and mixed it in.  It seemed like a lot, but then maybe the crushed garlic in a jar was more concentrated somehow.

It turns out, of course, that a hunk of garlic is called a "head", and each of those little pieces is a "clove".  Who knew?  I mean, besides everyone else?  So the batch must have had 10-12 cloves in it.  We tried to eat it, but couldn't really get much down.  And even from what we did eat we had that garlic odor coming out our pores for at least a day.  We laughed about it then, and still do.

Your reward for following along is Pat's Excellent Carbonara Recipe -- be careful with the garlic:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. pasta (I prefer linguine; any will do)
  
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
  
• Salt, pepper
  
• 1 large onion, chopped
  
• 1/2 lb. bacon
  
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
  
• 4 eggs
  
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  
• 1 large clove garlic, crushed
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped basil (fresh is best)
  

1.  Cook and chop the bacon.  Drain the grease from the pan, but no need to clean the pan yet.

2.  Cook the pasta per the "al dente" instructions, with 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Meanwhile...

3.  Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in the bacon pan, add the chopped onion and fry gently for 4 minutes or so.

4.  Add the chopped bacon and fry for an additional minute or two.

5.  Add the white wine, and boil until most (but not all) of the liquid is gone.  (The onions should be tender but not mushy, having absorbed much of the wine.)  Meanwhile...

6.  Beat the eggs with the cheese, garlic, and basil, and add salt and pepper to taste.  (I use about a tsp. each.)

7.  Drain the cooked pasta and quickly stir in the egg mixture and the bacon/onion mixture so that the heat from the pasta lightly cooks the egg.  Serve immediately.

It may take you a few tries to get the bacon/onion mixture just right, and have it finish exactly when the pasta finishes, ideally.  Let's hear a review from one of you after trying it!

And a future post will tell the "Weed Pesto" story.

Pat