Get in my belly!

Do I have your attention?  Yup, thought so.  Don't you think all recipes should start with bacon?  I do.  That would just be oh-so-lovely.  *sigh*  A girl can dream...

A little spinach to ease any guilt caused by that lovely bacon

I keep hearing about carbonara and how comforting it is.  Every time I watch a cooking show and they make this dish, they mention how easy it is to put together.  First time I tried to make carbonara...well, it wasn't quite the mass of easy comfort I'd imagined it would be.

And then I got 5-Ingredient Fix cookbook for Christmas.  Yup, every recipe has five ingredients or less!  Love it!!  So here's this very un-intimidating version of carbonara.

1/2 lb slab bacon, cut into half-inch chunks
1 lb fettuccine
1 large egg, plus 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish
2 tsp freshly cracked pepper
[if you're not familiar with these recipes, salt, pepper, and water are "freebie" ingredients and don't count]
2 cups baby spinach leaves

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously.

2. Put the bacon in a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat until crisp, about 10 minutes.  Remove the skillet from the heat.

3. When the bacon is halfway cooked, drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook according to package directions.  Remove about 1 cup of pasta water before draining pasta.  Set aside.

4. While pasta cooks, whisk the egg, egg yolks, 1 cup Parmesan cheese, and pepper in a small bowl.  If the mixture is too thick, slowly whisk in up to 1/2 cup of the hot pasta water.

 If your egg and cheese mixture looks like this, add the water

5. Return the bacon-drippings skillet to medium heat and carefully pour in 1/2 cup pasta water.  When it's very hot, remove it from the heat and add the hot pasta, tossing with tongs to coat.  While tossing continuously, slowly drizzle the egg mixture over the pasta until it's completely coated.  If the pasta is not still steaming hot, return the skillet to low heat while tossing.  Add more cooking water if the pasta seems dry.

 See that creaminess?  Oh yeah, that's what we're going for!

6. Toss the pasta with the spinach leaves until evenly distributed.  Serve immediately with more cheese sprinkled on top.

I learned there are two keys to making good carbonara.  One, you want to keep the pasta HOT as you're working this dish together.  Two, when you're working with raw eggs and HOT ingredients, you'll want to temper the eggs or you'll end up with scrambled eggs instead of creamy sauce.  Whisking hot water into the eggs helps.  Also as you add the egg mixture into the pasta, do so sloooooooooowly and keep the pasta moving with tongs.  Honestly, this is about as complicated as it gets and it's totally doable.  Yeah, it means using both hands at the same time which can sometimes feel totally weird but you can do this.  I promise. :)