Bucatini alla Carbonara
Ready to serve in: 15 minutes Active time: 15 minutes Serves: 4 Adults
Ingredients
1 Package of Trenchers Farmhouse Bucatini Pasta
6 ea Egg Yolks
1 ea Whole Egg
1.5 cups Pecorino Romano
1.5 tbsp Black Pepper
4 oz Guanciale or Pancetta or Bacon
1/2 bu Chives
Lemon, optional
Salt, to taste
Method
Prep the ingredients: Place the yolks in a small bowl and add the whole egg. Whisk together with 1 cup of grated Pecorino Romano cheese, set aside.
Dice the guanciale into fine pieces. Chop chives and crack black pepper.
In a sauté pan over medium heat, cook the guanciale until golden brown and slightly crisp. Turn the heat to low and add the black pepper to toast for another minute or 2. Allow to cool slightly. I like to separate the pieces from the oil but this is not necessary.
Once the guanciale is only slightly warm to the touch, whisk it gradually into the eggs until it is a smooth homogeneous mixture.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, season the water well. Cook the fresh bucatini pasta for 1 minute from al dente. Drain the pasta and reserve 3 cups of pasta water (the key to great bucatini is all in the pasta water). Bring 2 cups of pasta water to a boil and reduce by ½, add the bucatini, stir and turn the heat off.
Still with the heat off, using a wooden spoon and stirring swiftly, stream the egg mixture into the pan. Keep stirring slowly until the sauce just thickens to coat the noodles and the back of a spoon.
Serve with crispy guanciale pieces, a generous tbsp of fresh Pecorino Romano cheese, fresh chives and a squeeze of lemon.
Buon Appetito!
Recipe Notes:
Make it Gluten Free - We love our GF Linguine or GF Tonnarelli pasta. (please note that 1 box of our GF pasta contains 12 oz of pasta versus our egg noodle pasta is 13.7 oz, if you have big eaters in your family we would recommend grabbing 2 boxes and taking out 1 nest from the second and saving the rest for another day!)
Make it Vegetarian- Simply omit the guanciale or substitute with roasted mushrooms, we like to add a clove of garlic and some extra black pepper when making this vegetarian.
Let’s Talk Guanciale- While cured cheeks are traditional and delicious they are sometimes harder to find. We recommend asking your butcher or you can always substitute it for pancetta or bacon.
Pecorino Romano- The hard grating cheese of Rome! So delicious and salty, this cheese is similar in texture to Parmigiano so if you can not find Pecorino Romano you can always substitute it for Parmesan like cheeses.
Wished you had your fresh pasta near Westford Vermont. Love to try your pasta and your recipes. I like to have Vermont made products. Maybe this summer I can get a friend to your store.