Carbonara: easier than you think: and cheaper

Those of you who cook have experienced this:  you sit down, look at what's on the menu, see the price and say  "HUH?  I can make that for 1/3 of the price."  Indeed, the "restaurant rule" is that it should cost the restaurant 1/3 of the menu price, in ingredients.  That's everything on the plate.  When you do your little mental calculation (which Annalena does too), keep in mind that you aren't factoring in your labor, your rent, wear and tear on your equipment, etc.   Annalena does NOT mean to discourage you from eating out, or not eating things you can make:  you LEARN this way.  An arugula and strawberry salad, for example, was new to Annalena three years ago.  It seemed to be THE salad of the season during her sojourn to San Francisco. Every restaurant had it.  It is not hard to make. It was also good to have.    And Annalena can make most pasta dishes she gets in restaurants, but keep in mind that eating out is about "the moment."

Still... and then there are the dishes that somehow intimidate us, because they seem so... well... HARD.  Annalena suspects that pasta carbonara is one of them.  Indeed, it kind of freaked her out, until she made it.

Are you kidding?  This may very well be the easiest dish in the world to make.  Easy if you decide to cook bacon or pancetta, even easier if you take a simpler way and just use chopped prosciutto or ham.   And what is even better about this, is that the multipliers here are very, VERY easy, as we shall see.

So let's do it.  How many people are you cooking for? (and this is a GREAT "onesie " recipe for all of Annalena's single girlfriends).  Plan on 3- 5 ounces of dried pasta, depending on how hungry you and your assorted guests are, for each person.  You also need one egg yolk per person.  To separate an egg, crack it, drop it into your hand, and let the white stream out the side. Save it for other stuff (including Annalena's love crop cookies), or not.  Put the egg yolk or yolks in a bowl, and per person, grate 1/4 to 1/3 (1/3 is better) of a pecorino cheese.  Stir this together.

If you want to cook bacon for this dish, do so.  Make it as crisp as you like, and drain it. You can do so with pancetta chunks as well.  Or... just slice up some good quality prosciutto, or some small chunks of country style ham for the spice, whatever pork product you like.  Frankly, you could probably use cooked sausage, even chorizo, and go cross cultural.


Keep the pork separate from the eggs, for now.  Get your water boiling, with plenty of salt, and cook your pasta.  When it's just about ready ,(taste it), scoop out about a quarter cup of water, per person, up to a full cup.   (Incidentally, any pasta will work here). Drain your pasta, and now... pour it into the bowl with the egg yolks and the cheese.  and toss this all together.  Add the water.   Keep stirring, and... no,  you won't see any egg in the bottom of the bowl.  It all 'cooks' right to the pasta.  Now stir in your  ham, and please add some grated fresh pepper.  Lots of it.

And there you have it.  A very quick (how quick WAS IT?) dish that will make you feel like you could run a restaurant.

If you come away from this saying "WOW.  That was not hard at all," Annalena has done her job.

Off to SF ragazzi.  If you do not see her until Memorial Day, now you know why.  This time, she is not having an existential crisis, or a work crisis, or any crisis of any kind.  She is simply recharging her batteries, after a difficult first part of the year, and learning, learning learning.

Later, dudes.