Photo by Inga BerettaMy best friend brought this dish back from Italy the summer he went there as an exchange student. He lovingly referred to it as “scrambled eggs and bacon spaghetti” which is actually a pretty fair description. I thought it would be a perfect recipe to post for the Frugal Food Series: Bread, Potatoes, Pasta and Rice.
I like to serve this occasionally for dinner with a nice salad.
1 lb Spaghetti (noodles are noodles folks-you could use any type)
6 oz Bacon or Ham (original recipe calls for “Panceta-a special Italian ham)
4 Eggs
1 C Heavy Cream (or half and half, evaporated milk, or milk made w/2X the regular milk powder)
1 C Grated Parmesan (or Parmesan-Reggiano Cheese-fresh would be best, I use stuff from the shaker can)
1 tsp Black Pepper
- Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling water until tender-the idea is to have the pasta fully cooked yet still boiling hot when you get to step 5.
- Dice ham or bacon and brown in skillet.
- In large pan, heat oil and brown ham.
- In a bowl beat eggs, cream, cheese and pepper.
- Mix egg and cream mixture with drained pasta and toss together. The residual heat from the pasta cooks the eggs.
- Toss in Bacon/Ham, along with any drippings.
- Serve immediately
OK-I know the idea of the residual heat cooking the eggs probably skeeves some people out. Personally it doesn’t bother me much-I eat raw cookie dough all the time and it’s never made me sick. If it really bothers you but you want to make this dish, you can buy pasteurized eggs at most large supermarkets, or you could fiddle with the recipe by scrambling the eggs and cooking them by themselves (or maybe with a bit of salt & pepper) and then smashing them up pretty small and adding them cooked to the cream/cheese mixture. It would be a different flavor and texture, but pretty close.
Hi Jenn,
I can’t believe you still remember the alla carbonara recipe!
š
Here’s another one for old times sake — Sacha and I just made no-bake cookies last weekend. They were, unfortunately, “Britified” (she does like her sweets!) and so not only were they more decadent, but also much less frugal to make.
Regards,
Trond
We make Carbonara too, only without the cream. I heard that the “traditional” way to make it is just eggs, and it’s definitely good that way.
One of my all time favorite recipes, but not super healthy. I add peas sometimes to feel better about it. š
once the eggs and cream are blended, you can oh so briefly warm them on the stove to bring them up to temp before combining with the pasta. use low temp, and stir constantly like you were making pudding or custard.
OR, once it’s on the pasta, toss it about in a non-stick skillet for a minute or so.
just if you feel the need.
(or, use eggbeaters or suchlike)
I’m going to do this with veggie bacon and fresh cheese. Yum!
Trond-how could I forget :)\
S-buckets-well, I don’t think it’s unhealthy, it’s just high calories. I’ll have to try without the half and half sometime, that would bring the cost down. . .
nil-thanks for the additional cooking safetly tips.
Jenny-glad to know it will work vegetarian style. You might find some other cool recipes in the Bean post and the egg post (if you eat them). . .
Have the eggs at room temperature before you start, that will help the pasta heat cook them a little more than if they are cold when you start.
I made an improvised version of this tonight and it was de-lish! I added pureed squash instead of cream b/c I didn’t have any…it snuck in veggies and was just as creamy. Check out my improve on being short of ingredients:
http://roosefam.blogspot.com/2008/08/spaghetti-carbonara.html
And I WISH I would have read the comment about the peas…that would have been a great addition. I’ll do that next time. Thanks for sharing this recipe…I would have NEVER thought the eggs would cook through, but they did!