Thursday, February 25, 2010

Pasta Carbonara for a really bad day

Today my external hard disk crashed on me. My whole life is in there - family photos, vacation snaps, music I painstakingly downloaded and freeloaded off a whole bunch of people, work stuff (including my past work), and all my financial trackings. On hindsight I don't know why I never bothered to back it up, and today I pay the price.

So as one can tell, I am NOT in a good mood today. And as per my recently acquired habit (no thanks to Nigella again), I make a creamy, hot, totally sinful comfort dish - pasta carbonara.

While the pasta is cooking, thick bacon fingers are slowly crisped in a hot pan (large enough to hold your pasta) with a drop of garlic-infused oil then set aside, finely sliced onions softened in the savoury fat followed by minced garlic and then a splash of white wine to deglaze. Let the bacony winey mixture bubble away to cook off the alcohol. Off with the heat now. Crack 2 eggs in a bowl, add about 3/4 cups of freshly grated parmesan and generous dash of freshly ground black pepper and a grating of nutmeg, and beat to combine. When the pasta is cooked, drain it (reserve a cupful of the cooking water) and toss into the aforesaid pan. Toss the mixture around in the pan juices, then slowly pour the egg parmesan mixture into the pasta, tossing the pasta around until you get a velvety sauce clinging to the pasta. Taste and see if you need anymore salt - with the bacon, the cheese and salted water the pasta was cooked in you probably don't, although I normally find myself adding a whole lot more pepper. Sprinkle with the bacon and chopped parsley and serve immediately.

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