Spaghetti Carbonara

I’ve made Pioneer Woman’s Spaghetti Carbonara, the real thing with raw eggs and cheese(no cream) twice  , and loved it twice.

The first time I cooked this, Mike didn’t eat it, cos I cooked it at my Mother’s. And this time, he said, “It’s a waste that you’re not doing business with this…” and continued to shove the spaghetti into his mouth

But she put in so much parmesan.. a bit too expensive for me, so I substituted it with the cheapo cheese powder(Formaggio de Pasta) and sliced cheddar. Works wonders for me : ).
And I chose not to use wine or stock. Bacon and onions are flavourful enough for me, therefore, I find there is no need to use stock, but feel free to use stock if you want. The end product is not dry…. and the coating of gravy is just nice, like cream sauce pasta, but no cream is used here.

Spaghetti Carbonara
Recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman Cooks
Serves 2

170gm spaghetti (1/3 pack)
100gm streaky bacon, cut small
1 small onion, about 50gm unpeeled weight, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 cup water
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
2 slices cheddar cheese, chopped
2 Tbsp cheese powder/finely grated parmesan
Handful of chopped parsley

1. Put bacon into pan and cook on medium low heat until golden. The bacon will release a lt of oil. Remove bacon from the oil (renderings :p)
2. Put in chopped onions into the pan (still with the oil) and sauté until soft and put in sliced garlic and sauté until golden. Dish up (w/o oil)
3. Pour away the oil and heat the pan until hot again and put in water. Bring the water to a boil and put in 2/3 of the bacon and all the fried onions+garlic. Season with salt (has to be slightly oversalted) Simmer on medium heat for 3 minutes. (You can do this step in advance while waiting for dinner time)
4. Bring a pot of water to boil,.
5. While waiting for the water to boil, mix eggs, chopped cheese slices, cheese powder, black pepper and parsley together.
6. When water had boiled, cook spaghetti according to instructions on packaging. (better bring the bacon gravy back to boil now and keep it warm on low heat)
7. Pour everything from the pot into a colander (fishing out the spaghetti takes time, so better pour them out).
8. Shake the colander a few times and quickly pour the very hot spaghetti into the egg mixture. Pour in the hot bacon gravy and toss everything. It’ll look soupy. Toss, toss, toss. Throw in the remaining 1/3 of crispy fried bacon.
9. Leave the pasta in the bowl for 10 minutes, so that the eggs and cheese will thicken and coat the spaghetti well. (you won’t see the “soup” after 10 mins)
10. After 10 mins, give it a final toss and serve.