Saturday Night Carbonara with Mark and Bianca

Last night my friends @exyle Mark and @bkdbkd Bianca stayed over while their project "Kill Mickey" was in final stages of completion, so we decided to spend the night having beers, wine and some very delicious Carbonara Pasta. I've had my share of learning curve when it comes to Carbonara. The first four or five times I cooked it, I made either an omelette or a raw egg pasta soup, it was tragic. After the last failed attempt I was pretty upset and thinking of giving up, but I never let frustration get the best of me when it comes to cooking food, so I did more research and tried one more time with some adjustments, and pronto, made my first successful Carbonara about 8 months ago! Ever since then I've been watching more chef's videos and learning more details (when it comes to Carbonara, it's all about the fine details), and perfecting the recipe. Today I bring my amalgamation of everything I have learned and share with you the Spaghetti Carbonara by Fabrews recipe!

Ingredients for two:

• Half a package of Spaghetti (Ideally No.12)
• Three Egg Yolks
• 50g of Pecorino Cheese, finely grated
• 20g of Parmesan Cheese, finely grated
• 150g of Guanciale, sliced in strips
• 1 table spoon of finely chopped Chives
• Salt and Black Pepper to taste

So I start off by putting some Spaghetti Size No. 12 to cook, I prefer the 12 since it's slightly thicker than regular spaghetti, but not quite as thick as Linguine, though feel free to use any one of those, the only important thing is that you use dry pasta, since fresh pasta will not resist the cooking process and will break apart. The package says it should cook for 10 minutes for al dente and 12 minutes for full cook, so I'm going to cook it for about 9 minutes since the final minute or two will be cooked while mixing up the sauce.

I'm going full classic recipe for the sauce here, 3 Egg yolks and 50g of finely grated Pecorino cheese. The egg yolks can take a higher temperature than the whites and they are the part of the egg which emulsify and create the cream, so you really don't need the whites. As for the cheese, the choice of pecorino is to add a little more spiciness to the sauce than parmesan. I mix the yolks with the cheese and keep them aside. As for the meat, I selected some premium Guanciale, a cured pork cheek which I bought at the Little Italy shop in Rotterdam Blaak. You can also use pancetta or even bacon, but the traditional recipe calls for Guanciale, which has a higher fat content and packs much more flavor and aromas than the other two options. After chopping the guanciale in strips, I grilled it on medium heat in a skillet which will also be used to prepare the sauce later.

While the guanciale gets nicely browned in the skillet, the pasta will be ready to be poured in. Use a pair of tongs to remove the pasta from the water and pour it directly into the skilled, do NOT throw the water away. Mix everything together so you can get the pasta coated in all of the oil and guanciale crusty bits. Add about a half a cup of pasta water and remove from the fire.

After the water in the skillet cools down a bit and stops boiling completely, it's time to add the egg yolk and cheese mix. Once on top of the pasta, take your tongs and mix the egg quickly and thoroughly with the pasta, adding more water as needed to make the sauce. If you add too much water, bring it back to the fire on very low setting and cook it a bit further slowly and without boiling, but you should not have to worry too much about the water however, because the pasta will continue to cook as you mix the sauce and will absorb a lot of water.

Right before serving, sprinkle the chopped chives and season with salt and a good dose of black pepper, which really is the "soul" of the pasta.

Check the sauce just before serving, you will often find that it can quickly soak into the pasta and dry up, if this happens, add a final bit of hot pasta water before serving and mix. Garnish with grated parmesan cheese. Finito!!

We paired this delicious dish together with and Italian red wine from Toscana, but you will find that it also pairs well with white wine.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, have a good Sunday evening!

Cheers.