Carbonara – the home game

It certainly isn’t what an Italian from the old country would call Carbonara, and it’s not what you’d find at an Americanized Italian restaurant.  It is however healthier than what you’d get eating out, and easier than the true Italian version.  Oh, and the kids love it.

Classically Pasta alla carbonara is a spaghetti dish covered with a sauce based on eggs, cheese, bacon, and black pepper.  Somewhere along the line here in America this became a cream based sauce. I’m guessing that incorporating the eggs without scrambling them was too hard, so to give the sauce the right mouth feel, cream was used instead.

I started with American style bacon and it’s too greasy.  I though about Prosciutto but it’s too salty (and expensive).  I finally settled on Pancetta.  Pancetta doesn’t render out very much fat so you have to start it with a little olive oil.  It also takes about 30 minutes to cook up to the right crunchiness.  Instead of spaghetti I’ve also been using a prepackaged fresh three cheese tortellini.

So,

I render 3 to 6 ounces of pancetta in a tablespoon or so of olive oil.  Once it’s the right crunchiness I take the meat out and add three tablespoons of flour and whisk.  Why yes, that is in fact a roux.  Since it’s being used as a thickener I only let it cook for a few minutes.  I then slowly whisk in 2 cup whole milk and bring it back up to a boil.  Then dump the pancetta back in, and add a 10 ounces frozen baby peas and bring it back up to a boil.  Then add quarter cup grated parmesan cheese mix it up and pour it over the cooked tortellini.

OK, time for a cheese snob moment.

I’m sorry, but the stuff in the green can that’s called parmesan at the store may as well be sawdust given how flavorful it is.  I’m also not suggesting that you use Parmigiano-Reggiano either.  Parmigiano-Reggiano is great when you grate it over the top of a dish it has a distinctive look that says, and tastes of, sophistication.  Since the cheese is getting blended into a sauce I like something between the green can and reggiano, and I’ve found a domestic parmesan cheese that I think is fabulous.