Check this--Carbonara of Sorts

[paulk]

So simple and yet so luscious!


You boil some pasta. I had thrown together some fettucine using an egg, some semolina flour, and a little olive oil, water, and salt--but you could probably just use some leftover pasta (cappelini might be good) or something. Then you drain the pasta and give it a quick rinse.

While it's sitting in the strainer in the sink, you throw some butter in the pot you boiled the pasta in, over medium/medium-high heat. Let it melt and get somewhat hot, then add some julienned or perhaps diced canadian bacon, prosciutto, or maybe some capicola would work. Let it cook a little, then pour in some milk or cream (2% milk will work fine). Stir in some grated parmesan or asiago cheese. You could probably use pecorino-romano, but the kind I have is made with sheep's milk which makes me puke.

Then put your pasta back in and mix all the stuff up and eat it.

If you go easy on the butter and use 2% milk, you end up with a relatively low fat carbonaraesque dish.

[ms.peachy]

niiiiiiice!

I did a simple pasta last night (was feeling a bit lazy) - just snipped some fresh sage, chopped it up and threw it on some fusili with butter, salt and pepper. Deeee-vine.

[paulk]

You know not a lot of people can truly appreciate a simple pasta dish. In most cases, it's Slop on tons of tomato-based sauce. Which is not a bad thing necessarily; if the sauce is a good homemade one with lots of pork and stuff, it's great to do that and the pasta doesn't matter so much.

But there is nothing quite like fresh homemade pasta, and it's a shame to drown any high quality pasta (good taste and, just as important, texture) in an overpowering sauce.

[Riley]

I always make carbonara in the following way..
While the pasta's cooking, fry up some bacon, mix in some herbs and stuff, pour on some cream. Toss in the drained pasta. Remove from the heat and toss in the yolk of one egg. DO NOT COOK WITH THE EGG IN OR IT WILL SCRAMBLE!!!!

[paulk]

I know that's the right way to do it, but I've always been a pussy when it comes to raw eggs. I read somewhere that 1/3 of farm-raised poultry carry salmonella. Well, maybe it's no big deal, because when most people fry eggs the yolk probably doesn't heat up to 165 degrees, and I've never had any problems from that. And I guess maybe the heat from the pasta and sauce will heat the egg up.