Carbonara and the importance of good bacon

Jan. 29, 2011, 12:36 a.m. | by Adriano Petrich | Categories: Bacon Italian Love pasta

4 Stars 1 Vote

Good news everybody: I am picky

And nothing gets my pet-peeve silly brain going into overdrive better than Carbonara. Just to thicken the plot I am always after a great spaghetti Carbonara.

If the ingredients are not stated in the menu, rest assured that I will ask for them and if the waiter says cream I will grimace.

It is somewhat of a new dish. It doesn’t appear before the WWII and sounds like the bacon and powdered egg of the US army ration were the original ingredients.

To make it simple: Spaghetti alla Carbonara is Spaghetti (pronounced in my head with Nadia G’s accent), eggs, black pepper, cheese (percorino) and bacon

Let’s talk about bacon:

Bacon is love¹

First of all, like love, not all bacons are created equal. Industrial bacon sucks. They are made overnight by pumping liquid smoke and brine, and worse of all MSG. I hate the stuff. Natural food has it and I’m very happy with that what bugs me is the 99.99% percent pure MSG that companies and “people²“ add to “food³“ .

My home made bacon uses a dryrub and is smoked for at least 4 hours. Unfortunately my hacked smoker is dead and I can no longer make home made bacon.

Since I cannot make bacon from scratch⁴, or be happy buying industrial stuff, how to live a happily bacon life?

Artisan bacon, my friend. Artisan bacon. I’m getting mine from a German colony in the south of Brazil. There’s also a company called Cancian that makes good bacon, the traditional way.

¹As said by a vegetarian friend of mine

² I use the term loosely

³Same deal

⁴“In order to make an apple pie from scratch you have first to create an universe” — Missed Carl Sagan

Serve it NOW!

Carbonara is easy peasy. Make the pasta and fry the bacon. In a small bowl beat one or two eggs, reserve.

When the pasta is ready add it to the pan (turn off the heat a minute before to let it cool a little) with the bacon and toss (remove excess fat if desired first) add the eggs and toss and serve.

Cover with a generous portion of a good Parmesan cheese (or percorino) ground some black pepper on top and SERVE RIGHT NOW!

YES! I did forget to add the black pepper before shooting the pics, and when I added it I could not shoot because I was eating!