Reenigne blog

Soon after I moved to the US I fancied eating this but didn't have a recipe. So, I looked up one on the internet and adapted it to what I happened to have in the apartment. This isn't exactly what most people would consider carbonara (it's more like scrambled eggs and bacon with spaghetti) but it's filling, yummy comfort food.

Cut up some bacon (2 or 3 slices per person) into pieces about 1cm wide. I sometimes cut off most of the fatty bits to make it a bit healthier but this could quite rightly be considered an abomination.

Put some water on to boil and when it gets there put the spaghetti in and turn it down to medium. That's about the right time to put the bacon on. Put it in a nice big saucepan on a medium-high heat (not too hot or the fat that oozes out from the bacon will burn off before the bacon gets a chance to sizzle in it). No extra oil should be necessary.

While the bacon is frying, put some eggs (2 per person), a bit of salt and pepper and some grated cheese (the more kinds of cheese the better - I have had good results with cheddar, shredded mozzarella, parmesan and chevre). Mix it all up together.

If the bacon is done before the spaghetti, turn the heat down to low to stop it getting too crunchy. When the spaghetti is done (which should take 10 minutes or so - you want it just a little al dente but not so much that you get bits of it stuck in your teeth) strain the water off and dump it into the bowl with the eggs and cheese. Turn the heat back up on the bacon now if you turned it down before. Stir that about a bit so that the spaghetti gets coated in the egg. Once it's nicely homogeneous, plop it into the saucepan with the spaghetti and bacon juice. Stir it around a bit until bacon is all mixed in and the egg is just beginning to solidify. I find it's better if the egg isn't completely cooked through but be warned - undercooked eggs might give you food poisoning. I've not killed anyone with this dish so far though.

Plate it up and eat it with a nice tall glass of cold milk.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 4:00 pm and is filed under food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.