Penne Carbonara Recipe

The other night I made penne carbonara and thought I’d share the recipe with the three, maybe four of you who read this blog. This is one of the few dishes I can stand making in the summer here – our kitchen is super small and heats up really quickly, especially since there’s no AC in there. Plus, I have an unnatural fear of hot splashing oil, so whenever I’m frying something, I have to wear long sleeves. So as you can imagine, it gets unbearable pretty quickly.

Anyway, with this recipe I don’t have to worry about the suffocating heat because it’s a super fast recipe. And super easy. This recipe is actually adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. As an aside, for those of you out there who are beginning cooks, I’d really recommend Jamie Oliver, because all his recipes are delicious and fairly simple to make. He hardly ever bothers with standard measurements, instead using measurements such as “a wineglass full” or “ a handful,” which I found to be infinitely helpful for those times when I was first learning how to cook and would run around the kitchen like a chicken with its head cut off.

So onto the recipe. You’ll need:

4 slices bacon, chopped
I clove garlic, smashed with the back of your knife
2 eggs (try to get the freshest that you can – this is what makes or breaks the recipe), beaten
Parmesan cheese (fresh, not the Kraft kind), about 1/3 cup
About ½ box of penne pasta
Olive oil, 1 tablespoon

Serves 2

So what you do is first put the water on for the pasta, (make sure you add salt to it), let it come to a boil, and cook your penne until al dente, which is usually around 10 or 11 minutes. While you’re waiting for your pasta to cook, add about a tablespoon of olive oil to your frying pan and fry up the bacon until the fat is rendered. When it gets close to being done, add the smashed garlic to the bacon and oil and leave it in for about a minute so that it can flavor the oil. When the bacon’s done, remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Leave the oil in the pan, you still need it later.

Now beat your eggs together with the cheese. When your pasta is ready, drain the pasta, BUT save about a half cup of the pasta water. Add your pasta to the oil, put back the bacon, and toss.

This next part is important. The key to a good carbonara is all about the sauce. You don’t want to egg to cook, otherwise you end up with scrambled eggs. Add the egg and cheese mixture to the pasta and toss thoroughly. Add some of the cooking water (not too much), if you feel like you need to make the sauce a bit smoother. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you like, you can also add some extra cheese on top.

And that’s it! Here’s what it should look like:



This recipe takes no more than 15 minutes to make, and paired with a nice salad, it’s fast and easy, not to mention pretty darn tasty.