Pasta
alla Carbonara
As preferred by Pietro Cassinadri
This dish is named this way because it was first made by
the Carbonari, an insurgent group of people that used to meet in the
Ingredients for 4 to 6 persons:
Noodles: 1 lb., Pasta Agnese, DeChecco or equivalent, Rigatoni, or Penne
rigate.
Bacon: 1
lb., Better if smoked, cut in ¼” cubes.
Eggs: 4,
to be beaten for 60 seconds, while the pasta is cooking.
Onion: 1,
better if red.
Salt: Critical for a good taste: not too
much, not too little, and if you don’t’ know what is the right amount do not
experiment today.
White wine: One large glass, Use good white wine with 12%
alcohol- Pinot Grigio, Frascati, or Chianti.
Cheese:
Parmesan, abundant.
Peas: One
small can.
Preparation:
Chop the onion and Sauté
in white wine, then ad the bacon. It
will take 10 minutes to get the pasta water to boil, + ten minutes for the
pasta to cook; so this onions and bacon have about 20 minutes to cook and be ready.
Boil noodles in salt
water, abundant water, salt in the water, and throw in the noodles when the
water is boiling fast. The next 6 to 8 minutes are not critical, but then, when
the pasta reaches the final cooking optimal stage, you
need to taste it repeatedly to be able to keep it “al dente”, that is, if you
chow on it your teeth should feel a slight resistance, and not going through
the pasta as if it was butter.
Drain the pasta, put it back
in the pan used to cook it, and back on the stove with the burner still hot but
turned off.
Add the beaten whole eggs
to noodles. Steer the noodles for a short while then let rest for one minute. The
heat of the pasta should be sufficient to cook the eggs. If in the process the
pasta has lost to much heat put burner back on, low level, until the eggs are
clearly cooked and coating the pasta.
Add the bacon and onion
mixture to the pasta, also add ½ stick of butter, mix and let rest for 3
minutes.
Add Parmesan cheese and
peas. Serve warm. It can be kept warm and consumed for few hours, but the next
day it cannot be reheated.