(Submitted by Marco Bongiovanni)
This is a course typical of the Rome area, but it gained recognition all over Italy and beyond.
For 4 people:
Ingredients:
1 lb of pasta (preferably spaghetti or penne)
4 eggs
Grounded parmesan cheese (about 4 full spoon)
Bacon
Salt and Pepper
Preparation:
Put water in a pot with a spoon of salt.
When the water is boiling, throw the pasta and cook it till at "al
dente" point, which means when it's not too chewy, but still a little bit
crunchy in the middle part. Usually spaghetti takes 5 minutes after being
thrown in, penne a little bit more, like 8-ish.
Drain the pasta from water and put it in a big plate or back in the
pot itself.
At the same time of cooking the pasta, start preparing the sauce so
it will be ready as soon as the pasta is cooked.
Put the yellow part of the eggs (never the white, jelly stuff) in a
plate and start scrambling them with a fork. After some time scrambling,
add the parmesan cheese and keep scrambling all together till it becomes
smooth and creamy.
Chop the bacon into dice and fry it in a pan with a bit of butter or oil, till it becomes a little crispy.
The three components (pasta, eggs and bacon) should ideally be ready
at the same time.
Add slowly the eggs to pasta, being sure to stir the pasta continuously
to avoid that eggs will solidify because of the pasta's heat. After the
eggs, add the beacon and stir in order to let the bacon spread around.
Serve on plates letting people adding salt, pepper and more parmesan
cheese at their wish.
It's better not adding salt during the preparation because sometimes
bacon is already salty enough.
Red wine is recommended.
Note:
I recommend De Cecco or Barilla as pasta brands. They can be easily
found in any market.
About the parmesan cheese, although is more expensive, I would stay
with the imported Grana Padano. Try to avoid Vermont parmesan, etc. which
are very good cheeses, but not ok for this kind of sauce.