10 minute Carbonara

I have a few dishes in my repertoire that can be cooked up in a flash and that use store cupboard/ house hold staple ingredients. Here is one of them, carbonara

Serves 4

1 onion
4 rashers of smoked bacon or pancetta
200g mushroom
25g butter
4 cloves of garlic
4 egg yolks
4 handful of grated parmesan (1 per person)
400g pasta ( spaghetti is traditional)
salt and pepper to taste
oil to saute

• Put a heavy based fry pan on a medium heat and a large pan of water onto boil.
• Once the water has come to the boil add salt and the pasta.
• Then add the chopped onion and bacon to the frying pan, the bacon will release some fat, but some oil will need to be added to stop things burning/sticking before the fat has come out of the bacon.
• Give the pasta a stir to stop it from sticking every now and then.
• Once the onion has softened and the bacon is beginning to crisp us add the mushrooms and the garlic to the pan, when the mushrooms go in they will soak up any moisture in the pan so add the butter now.
• Meanwhile drain the pasta, reserving about half a cup of the cooking liquid to add moisture to the sauce if needed.
• Add the pasta, egg yolks and cheese to the the pan with the mushrooms, onion, garlic and bacon  which should now be off of the heat.
• The heat of the pan and the hot pasta is hot enough to cook the egg through but if you feel the need to make sure it is definitely cooked, heat very gently and stir continuously. Stir this all together to evenly coat the pasta, add some of the reserved pasta water to thin down the sauce if you feel that it is needed.
• Plenty of salt, pepper and parmesan to serve.

Variations:

You can leave out the mushrooms (just remove the butter too), onion, garlic, bacon to your taste but don't leave them all out or you will be left with nothing!

You can use whole egg rather than just egg yolks, but the egg scrambles slightly and gives a dryer sauce, rather than a smooth glossy coating that the egg yolk alone will give you, I always use whole eggs, because my family prefer it like that and I don't make enough meringues to use up the egg whites!

Add fresh basil for colour and flavour right at the end before serving.

Add a splash of white wine after the mushrooms have been cooked and allow to evaporate before adding the pasta, egg and cheese.

Use what ever cheese you have, strong cheddar works well.

If you like a thick and creamy carbonara, add 150ml of cream (whatever kind you have in the fridge single/double) Or half a pack of cream cheese, the ones flavoured with garlic and herbs go well add to the pan when you add the pasta, cheese and egg.

Replace the bacon with cured sausage, chorizo works really well.

Happy cooking 

xoxo