The spaghetti "alla carbonara"

This is an easy dish, provided you have the right ingredients and follow scrupolously the few though fundamental rules in its realization.
First of all, the egg. It does not have to cook at all. Very very wrong, then,  is to put the seasoned pasta in the frying pan on the stove (TN: putting the drained, seasoned pasta in a pan on the stove is called "ripassare" in Italian). The heat of the cooked pasta and of the guanciale is quite enough: at most, in order to add creaminess, one can use the water vapors from the boiling pasta - as explained further below - or "ripassare" quickly the pasta in the frying pan still warm on the stove but WITH THE GAS OFF.
Then, the pasta: the best option would be to drain it thoroughly WITHOUT the use of a strainer, so as to to keep it moistened with a bit of its cooking water.
The guanciale (TN: this is fat from the cheek of the pig - just imagine streaky bacon without the streaks of meat, just fat): it does not have to become too crunchy. At least, not too quickly. The fire must rather be gentle: it must just gently  warm it, so as to help it melt as much as possible.
Finally, the pepper: most abundant, as if it were raining ("come se piovesse", in Italian). This is quite crucial, as the black pepper of La Spezia (TN coastal town in the Liguria region of Italy) recalls the soot from the coal, from which the name of this dish comes from (TN: the Italian for coal is "carbone").




Difficulty: average

Time of preparation: approx. 30 minutes

Equipment: One pot for the pasta, one rather wide frying pan, chopping block, a knife, one serving bowl, one cheese grater.


Ingredients for four persons:
1/2 kg of spaghetti
150 g of guanciale (hard skin removed)
little extra virgin olive
oil
2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks
roman
pecorino cheese
abundant black pepper to be milled at the moment.


Procedure
Put a pot with plenty of water on the stove. Cut the guanciale into small cubes of approximately 1 cm of side (a third of an inch). Break the eggs and put eggs and egg yolks in the bowl which will contain the seasoned pasta: add the grated pecorino to taste and the black pepper, mixing quickly and thoroughly with a fork. Place the bowl on top of the pan with the water as if were its lid, for about half a minute, and keep stirring the mixture, so that it will become creamier.
Heat the guanciale in a frying pan the with a little oil and leave it to shallow fry on gentle heat, so as to to make it *sweat * as much as possible.
In the meantime, as soon as the water boils cook the pasta  and drain it making sure you do not drain it completely, and reserving a bit of the cooking water.  Put the pasta in the bowl with the egg/pepper/pecorino mixture, add more grated pecorino and combine thoroughly, so that the heat from the water and the guanciale will coagulate the eggs and - if necessary - add a little bit of the reserved cooking water to help coagulation. If you wish, add some more grated pecorino at the end.


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