Last year I
posted an ultimate comfort food - pizza to weather hurricane Irene. This time as all of North East is bracing for
impact of hurricane Sandy, I wonder if maybe these threats are coming more
often now than they did before. Or maybe
there were storms in the past and I just didn’t pay much attention being younger
and more light-minded. The news keeps referring
to a major storm of 1991 and I don’t even recall it… I was too busy being a
teenager I guess.
Anyway, I
figured while I still have power I might as well cook something yummy, heavy
and as comforting as a goose blanket on a cold night. The kind of food that can ward off any storm,
mostly because you’ll end up sleeping right through it. A piece of warning- this is not a light food
by any means and should be consumed with caution and only in the case of a
nature’s fury. Other than a hurricane,
the only other reason to make this is probably a snow storm.
Crack open a
bottle of special wine and you can stare into an eye of any storm and not even
blink.
And speaking
of wine, you might want to pair it with something a bit spicy and full-bodied
to cut down some of the richness. A nice
Syrah or Brunello goes very well with the creaminess of the sauce.
Pasta
Carbonara being one of the creamiest sauces out there contains no dairy of any
kind. It is basically bacon and eggs
served with noodles. It cooks in 10
minutes (assuming you are not making the pasta at the same time) and basically
requires four ingredients.
I made my
own noodles but you can use fresh or dried pasta of any kinds. Spaghetti or Bucattini works the best because of the ways the sauce
coats the strands. I made Bucattini, which is a thicker spaghetti with a whole in a middle.
Making good
pasta requires a lot of experimentation.
Sheet pasta dough used for
stuffed pasta or for papadelli is more forgiving, but if you are making the
extracted pasta such as spaghetti, the right texture is key. I use the King Arthur pasta flour blend, it
has a nice balance of semolina and “00” flour.
For the
pasta:
Makes about 5 - 6 servings
3 ¼ cup of
King Arthur Pasta flour blend + more for kneading and dusting the ready pasta.
4 extra
large eggs
1 or 2 tbs
of water ( if needed)
For
Carbonara sauce:
¼ lbs of Pancetta
diced into ¼ inch cubes or julienned into strips
¼ lbs of
bacon diced
5 extra large
eggs
½ cup of shredded
parmesan cheese
½ cup of
shredded pecorino cheese
A handful of
frozen or fresh peas ( optional)
3 whole garlic cloves
Freshly ground
pepper
Salt to
taste
Prepare
the pasta dough. In the food processor
fitted with a dough blade, mix the flour and the eggs until the dough comes
together. If it is so dry that it is
crumbling instead of forming a ball, you can add 1 or 2 tbs of water, but I
urge caution as the dough should be very dry.
Turn out the dough onto a work surface dusted with flour and knead until
smooth. Cover with plastic and let rest
at least 30 minutes.
When
ready to make pasta cut the ready dough into 5 or 6 pieces and generously flour
each before putting through a pasta machine.
Once the pasta is extracted, separate it carefully and dust with more
flour. At this point, you can either hang
your pasta to dry (the back of a chair works great for this) or lay it out to
dry in bird-nests.
You should
let the pasta dry about an hour, longer if you can manage it. You can also freeze the pasta at this time.
When ready
to make assemble the dish, make sure the pasta water is generously slated and
boiling before you begin making the sauce.
When making Carbonara, thongs move rather quickly.
To a deep
large skillet, add bacon and pancetta and whole garlic cloves and cook on medium until most of the fat
has been rendered and the pieces are turning crispy. Set aside and do not discard the rendered
fat. You do not want to let the fat cool
either it needs to be hot enough to cook the egg, so you can keep the skillet
on super low flame.
In a bowl
whish the eggs, cheeses and black pepper until smooth.
Discard the
garlic from the bacon mixture.
Boil the
pasta for 2 min (if using peas you can throw them into the boiling water with
the pasta), than drain and add to the skillet with bacon and pancetta. Toss to coat all of the pasta evenly with the
fat. Turn off the heat and add the egg
mixture. Using a wooden spoon beat the
egg mixture very quickly into the pasta.
The heat from the noodles and the fat will cook the eggs turning a whole
thing into a creamy paradise.
Taste the
sauce, most likely it will not require additional salt as there are too many
salty elements such as bacon and cheese, but you can always adjust seasoning to
your taste
Serve with a
bit of fresh ground pepper, more shredded cheese ( if desired) and be ready to
take a nap right after…
Now if this
does not stick to your bones and keeps you cozy in bad weather, I don’t know
what will.
