Fettuccine Alla Carbonara, With No Cream Necessary.
By: Elizabeth Schreiter
Published: Thursday, January 21, 2010 - 3:27am

Ingredients




2/3 pound of fettuccine, pericatelli or bucatini (dried, not fresh)
2 very fresh eggs
1/4 pound pancetta, cubed
1 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, grated (plus more for topping, though that’s optional)
Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

1 Whisk the eggs, season with salt and a generous amount of black pepper, as the latter will provide the "carbon" look so classic to this dish, and set aside. 2 Meanwhile, cook the pasta in salted water until a minute shy of al dente, reserving a ladle or two of the salted, starchy water. 3 Then get to browning some pancetta and garlic, then adding a bit of pasta water and then the cooked pasta. 4 Remove from the heat and crack in some eggs, stirring to cook them, and season with salt and pepper. 5 Finish with the Parmigiano Reggiano, stir to combine, and serve immediately

About


Ever since the Mrs. and I honeymooned at Baur B&B, she has been devoted to making our own carbonara.  It’s the kind of place where you feel like you’re best friends with everyone who walks through the door, so much so that another couple staying there offered to share their dinner with us and the proprietor one night for no reason other than fellowship and kindness.  It’s the inherent  greatness of sharing a meal with kind people.
Hang on a minute, sailor- you should be saying.  You two got married a while ago, right?  Why the hold up? Honestly, this dish is fraught with peril. The carbonara conundrum, so to speak, is that you have to be very, very sure of your eggs before you proceed or risk a very, very unpleasant evening.  And so, trepidatious to say the least, we waited.
Finding ourselves reveling in the splendid tumult that is the Union Square Green  Market last Saturday, we resolved to concoct a meal out of whatever looked good to us there, mainly because rain was coming and we didn’t feel like schlepping to Fairway.  What we found was farm fresh eggs, guaranteed by the seller to be valid for raw or semi-raw consumption for five days hence.  The lovely thing about the dish is that once you bite the bullet with the eggs, the rest is quite easy.
This dish needs a hardy, dry pasta to stand up tot he bacon and eggs you’ll soon be slinging.