Biagio's spaghetti carbonara

 
                        BIAGIO'S SPAGHETTI CARBONARA
 
 Recipe By     : 
 Serving Size  : 3    Preparation Time :0:00
 Categories    : Pasta                            Italian
                 Usenet
 
   Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
 --------  ------------  --------------------------------
    1       lb           Spaghetti (thin),
                         -rotini or equivalent
                         -pasta
    2       tb           Olive oil
      1/2   lb           Pancetta or bacon
    1       md           Yellow onion
                         -(chopped)
      1/2   c            Cold water
      1/4   c            Italian white wine,
                         -dry
    4                    Eggs
    4       tb           Heavy cream
    8       tb           Parmesan cheese
                         -(grated)
 
   Put large bowl in oven to warm at lowest possible
   setting.  Soak chopped onion in cold water for 15
   minutes to reduce pungency. Chop Pancetta or bacon
   into 1/4-inch x 1-inch strips.
   
   Beat eggs and cream together with a fork.  Add about 4
   T Parmesan cheese to the mixture.
   
   Wash pasta.  Put on water to cook pasta.  Add pasta
   when boiling.  In the meantime...
   
   Dry onions and saute with pancetta or bacon in olive
   oil until onions are barely translucent.  Add wine and
   reduce heat when initial boiling ceases. Meat should
   not be crisp.
   
   When pasta is cooked, drain, but DO NOT WASH.  Quickly
   remove bowl from oven, put pasta in it and toss with
   egg, cream and cheese mixture so that heat from pasta
   cooks eggs. Add meat, onions and wine without draining
   fat and toss until thoroughly mixed. Sprinkle
   remaining cheese to taste, toss and serve immediately.
   
   NOTES:
   
   *  Spaghetti Carbonara, Neapolitan Style -- My wife
   and I had the pleasure of staying at the Villa
   Virgiliana (owned by The Vergilian Society) in Cuma,
   Italy just outside of Naples in June, 1985. Biagio and
   Maria Sgariglia, the proprietors of the villa, served
   us excellent Italian farm meals for a week, each meal
   being more delicious than the last. This dish was the
   gastronomic highlight of our stay.
   
   *  Pasta should be cooked AL DENTE so that it offers
   resistance to the teeth without crunching. Fresh pasta
   is desirable (dried pasta is a poor imitation of the
   real thing.) Pasta should be used immediately when
   done so as to stop its internal cooking. If both
   portions of the recipe cannot be completed at the same
   time, the meat and onion mixture should finish first.
   
   *  I have made a very successful variation on this
   using hot country sausage. Make sure the sausage is
   fairly lean if you try it, however. All of the
   quantities are adjustable and may depend on the kind
   of pasta or meat you use. Too much cream will cause
   the egg mixture to separate from the pasta and meat.
   Too little cream will essentially give you scrambled
   eggs and bacon with pasta.
   
   : Difficulty:  moderate to hard (timing is critical).
   : Time:  30 minutes.
   : Precision:  measure the ingredients.
   
   : Byron Howes
   : North Carolina Education Computing Service, Research
   Triangle Park, NC : bch@ecsvax  or
   {akgua,decvax}!mcnc!ecsvax!bch
   
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