Spinach Fettuccini Carbonara

Let's get one thing out of the way. True carbonara is not a cream sauce. True carbonara has only these ingredients: eggs, hard cheese, bacon or pancetta, black pepper, and water. It's quite simple to make, but takes a little practice to get the texture right. This is a dish my boyfriend and I like to make. It's pure comfort food. He makes the pasta from scratch and I make the sauce.

If you can, use fresh pasta. Soon we'll share a recipe for that. For now though, if you don't make your own pasta, use fresh or dried pasta from the store. We like this dish best with spinach fettuccini, but you could use any long stringy pasta. Carbonara is traditionally made with spaghetti. It doesn't work well with tubes or chunky pasta because it's too hard to get the egg mixture to coat it evenly. When you make carbonara, you rely on the heat of the pasta to gently cook the eggs.

Now let's talk about pork. Use either bacon, pancetta, or a combination of both. We've made this dish with good results using what we're able to get our hands on: regular bacon, think cut (slab) bacon, or pancetta. By far, our favorite way to make it is with half pancetta and half thick cut bacon. Look for thick cut bacon at the butcher counter. Same for pancetta, but that's often packaged with the deli meats, which is fine too. The advantage of bacon is it has a higher fat content, which makes for more liquid in the sauce, making it coat the pasta better. What we like about pancetta is that it's meatier, denser, and a bit saltier. Between the pork and the hard cheese, you probably won't find yourself needing to add salt to this dish. Pro tip: when you make bacon at other times, save some of the grease in a little jar in the fridge. Next time you make carbonara with only pancetta, add a little of it to the pan.

Whatever type of pork you end up using, dice it in roughly evenly sized pieces, like this.

We like to use a combination of parmesan and pecorino romano. Sometimes we use all of one of these. Sometimes we like to add green onions towards the end of the bacon cooking time. I don't think this is traditional, but they disappear nicely into the sauce and add a little flavor. Chopped fresh basil on top is also good. Some people like to add peas. I'm not one of them.

Okay I'll stop rambling now and give you the recipe.

Ingredients

½ lb. pancetta or slab bacon (or a combination of both), diced

4 egg yolks

⅓ cup parmesan

⅓ cup pecorino romano

½ tsp black pepper

Salt to taste

1 green onion, diced (optional)

12 oz. fresh or dried spinach fettuccine

Chopped fresh basil for the table (optional)

More black pepper and cheese for the table (optional)

Instructions

Place the pancetta or bacon in a large, cold skillet and cook on medium heat until well done and crisp, about 20 minutes. If you’re using only pancetta, you might want to add a few tablespoons of bacon fat (or olive oil if you must). Pancetta tends to be leaner than bacon and doesn’t create as much liquid in the pan.

While the bacon is cooking, start boiling water in a large pot for the pasta. Add a pinch of salt to the boiling water before adding the pasta, which you should cook only for 6 minutes if it's fresh.

In a mixing bowl, combine the egg yolks, cheese, and pepper.

Look how pretty!

If you’re adding green onions, add them to the skillet when the pork is about half done.

Before the pasta is finished, scoop out ½ cup of the cooking water and slowly pour it into the egg mixture, stirring continuously. Drain the pasta when it’s al dente. Add the pasta to the mixing bowl, stirring to coat it completely with the egg mixture. The heat of the pasta gently cooks the eggs.

A note about adding pasta cooking water to the egg mixture. If your pasta is very fresh, like you just made it, you might not need to add any water. This is something you can determine after making the recipe several times and seeing what you like best. Or you can use just 1/4 cooking water depending on whether the pasta is fresh or dried, and packaged or homemade. Experiment!

When the pork is fully cooked, remove the pan from heat, add the pasta to the pan and mix everything together. Taste and add salt if needed. Depending on how salty the pork and cheeses are, you might not need to add any salt.

Serve with more black pepper, basil, and cheese on the table.

Pairs nicely with a chicken breast and dry white wine. Or serve it for breakfast (that's right: breakfast pasta) with a cheddar biscuit and grapefruit mimosa. Last night, we served it with ricotta-stuffed mushrooms.

Make a stuffing of ricotta, romano, salt and pepper, toasted breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, chopped mushroom stems, and crushed fresh garlic. Remove and chop the stems from the mushrooms, and stuff the caps. Brush bottoms with olive oil and bake on a cookie sheet at 350 for I don't know, 15 minutes or so.