Favorite Recipe: Spaghetti Carbonara

I found this recipe in Seventeen Magazine while I was in high school. I still remember the opening line: “Have bacon and eggs for dinner in this yummy Italian dish . . . .”

This was the first recipe I ever clipped and made on my own — up until that point, I worked exclusively from my mother’s cookbooks. And the ol’ Carbonara has stayed with me all these years, becoming something of “my specialty.”

We’re having a combo Mother’s Day/Birthday celebration for Mom tomorrow, and this is what she requested for dinner, as always. (To which I always respond: “Don’t you want something fancier?” But then, on my birthday, I always request her homemade mac and cheese, prompting the same query from her. But her mac and cheese is really flippin’ good.)

Anyway, this is my slightly-modified, gave-up-on-measuring-long-ago version. That original magazine clipping did not age well and was eventually tossed. Hope you enjoy.

Ingredients:
- One lb. Bacon, cut into 1″ pieces.
- One medium Onion, diced
- Spaghetti: enough to serve 4-6
- Fresh herbs, if you have some on hand: Basil, Oregano, Rosemary
- Dried herbs, if you don’t have fresh (Maybe 1/2 teaspoon total)
- 2 Eggs
- 3/4 c. Parmesan
- Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. While that’s happening, cook the bacon pieces in a large skillet.

2. Drain the bacon on paper towels. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the grease from the skillet.

3. Toss the diced onion into the skillet, and your herbs. Cook until the onion is translucent. Then, return the bacon to the skillet, and set aside.

4. While the onion is cooking, boil the spaghetti according to the package directions.

5. When the spaghetti is done, quickly drain it, and return it immediately to the pot.

6. Break the two eggs right into the hot pasta, and start tossing them together vigorously. The heat retained in the pasta will cook the eggs into a creamy sauce. Don’t put any heat under the pot unless you see that the eggs are not cooking. If you need to, you can turn on some low, low heat and keep tossing. (Adding too much heat will result in scrambled-egg-spaghetti.)

7 Now, toss the bacon and onions into the pasta. Then, toss in the parmesan. And finally, a little salt and pepper.

(This tasty photo, by the way, is from Marion’s Kochbuch.)