I did it, finally. I got my zen. I prayed to the old gods and the new. And I did it.

I made perfect Spaghetti Carbonara.

Some of you may be rolling your eyes (dad) but some of you might be intrigued. And this is for you-

Once upon a time………….

It was a blustery Monday night in November…

..andddddd…….It’s monday night. I’m tired. Cold. What the hell do I make for dinner? Oh I know- I bought bacon on sale over the weekend at the grocery store. CARBONARA. LETS GIVE IT A SHOT.

No one understands my struggle, I love carbonara. How can you go wrong? Pasta, cheese, eggs, BACON?! and parsley (we’ll get to that later).

For those of you who don’t know (everyone but my husband) is that all my attempts at carbonara, no matter how hard I try, have ended in spaghetti scrambled eggs. If you don’t know what I’m talking about and have already googled the recipe you’ll be slightly confused like me because you will find posts like this-

(sorry for the iphone photo but my printscreen isnt working on my laptop)

Anyways, this isn’t the carbonara I’ve grown to love over the years. Carbonara should NOT have chucks of egg in it. No. Why!? WHY IS THIS ON A REPUTABLE SITE FOR RECIPES?!

This is exactly what I’ve gotten (until this past Monday) and while it is still edible it is not what I intended to have. IN FACT- when I presented my perfect carbonara to my husband and proclaimed “LOOK- NO EGG CHUNKS!!” he politely answered with “oh?? i never noticed…yeah”. I at least think he is being polite or the bacon just blinds all culinary standards.

I’m going to share the recipe after the jump but here is the trick I learned- turn the meat and onion sautée off a few minutes before adding the pasta and egg. Most recipes call for just “removing from heat and adding…” but I’ve always done that so instantaneously that I ended up with…spaghetti scrambled eggs. It happened to me by accident because most recipes want you to start your pastas before the “sauce” but I started too late and had to turn my saute off before the pasta was done to cool it slightly.

Now- this is the thing- spaghetti carbonara traditionally is done with Pancetta. But!!! is also done with bacon (MERICA) and some people even do it with heavy cream instead of egg (EW). So, my recipe will call for bacon but IDEALLY should be pancetta if you want to go all- food snob-this shit wasn’t on sale- on me. K?

and if you’re here for the weim- she was all about that bacon.

Perfect Spaghetti Carbonara

• 1 lb dry spaghetti
• 2 tbsp olive oi
• 8 ounces bacon (or pancetta) sliced into small pieces
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup reserved pasta water
•  Cracked black pepper (a lot of if you are me)
• 1 Handful of fresh chopped parsley

First things first- start your pasta. This dish comes together rather quickly. While your pasta is cooking sautée your olive oil and bacon until crispy and all the fat is rendered. After that add the garlic and cook for about 1 more minute (be careful not to burn your garlic!)

In a separate bowl combine both eggs, scrambled, and your cup of cheese.

Remove from head and then add your hot pasta to the pan with the bacon, grease and garlic. Toss to coat well.Once your pasta is coated in the oily/fat mixture add the egg/cheese slowly and toss. At this point I added about 1 cup of reserved water from the pasta to thin out the sauce and ensure complete coating. Once it is nice and creamy (and hopefully not scrambled and chunky) add some fresh cracked pepper and a handful of fresh parsley.

Happy husband is happy.

Cheers to the chef!

Pro Tip: after I completed my meal I texted my dad is excitement. He told me to simply add 1 cup of reserved pasta water to the egg mixture BEFORE even mixing it into the pasta to bring it to room temperature (which totally makes sense if you are on time and not bringing a testy weim out every 10 minutes just because you are home now.)

Pro Tip v.2: Buy a bunch of fresh parsley and keep it other meals during the week. Once I buy mine I wrap it in a damp paper towel and put it in a freezer bag in the fridge. It stays fresh for at least 2 weeks! I love fresh parsley on a lot of dishes and its totally worth it flavor wise. So don’t back out because you think its just garnish!!!