Spaghetti Carbonara (II)

This is one of those recipes I don't make very often anymore because of the evil-carb nature of all pasta, but it was requested for a birthday dinner recently, and I thought it would be a good addition to this list.  I found this on allrecipes.com, and I'll post it here with the modifications I normally make noted as such.  Hats off to the original poster, Sabrinatee!

This isn't a difficult dish, but once you have the onions cooked, it goes very quickly, so the mise en place process of getting everything prepared and measured beforehand is your friend. So I chop the onion and beat the eggs, and if I'm lucky enough to have a block of Parmesan, I grate it first. Then I cook the bacon, and about halfway through that process, I put the water on to boil. When the bacon is all done and crumbled, you can move very quickly through the rest of the process.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. spaghetti (I usually only use 1/2 lb.)

1 Tablespoon olive oil

8 slices to 1 lb. bacon, diced (I usually just cook the bacon then chop it up)

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup dry white wine (optional)

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

PREPARATION:

Cook pasta in boiling salted water until al dente, then drain and toss with 1 T olive oil, and set aside.

While waiting for the water to boil, fry the bacon to just crisp and then drain on paper towels. Empty out the rendered grease, reserving some for cooking the onions and garlic (the original recipe says 2 Tablespoons, but I generally use 4 or 5). I just fry the bacon without chopping it up first, and after it's all cooked I give it a rough chop to make it all bite-sized.

Add the remaining olive oil and the reserved bacon grease to the same skillet, and cook the onions over medium to medium-high heat until translucent. (I use an electric food chopper to make the onion bits pretty small, but they can be any size you choose.)  Add the minced garlic (I usually do 3-4 cloves of garlic because we like the flavor) and cook for 1 minute. If you are using the white wine, add it and cook one more minute.

Return the bacon to the pan, and add the cooked and drained spaghetti. Toss well to coat with the oils and to mix the bacon and onion-garlic mixture into the pasta. Add more olive oil and/or bacon grease if the pasta seems too dry or is sticking together.

Working quickly, pour in the beaten eggs and mix, tossing thoroughly, until the eggs are cooked. Quickly add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and toss again. Season with salt and pepper, but remember that Parmesan and bacon are very salty in themselves.

Serve immediately with fresh chopped parsley and extra Parmesan.

Comfort-food Spaghetti

Okay, this is SO not home-made. But it is the sauce that my children want when they want spaghetti. So don’t judge me. We all do things when our children are small (i.e. when we have been sleep-deprived for 7 years) that we aren't necessarily proud of.

1 lb. ground beef (the leaner it is, the less you’ll have to drain)
1 jar of Barilla Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce. (Yes. That specific.)
1 can of LaRosa’s Original Sauce (If you’re not in Cincinnati, you’re out of luck. Sorry. You can skip this post.)
1/2 to 1 lb spaghetti pasta

Fill a 2- or 3-quart pot with hot water, salt it, and bring it to a boil. Break your spaghetti noodles in half and put them in to cook. I usually only make 1/2 lb. or less, because I like a lot of sauce, and because G-man can't eat a lot of pasta anymore. (Read the box for how long this should take. They’re all similar.)

If you're okay with multi-tasking, you can start the beef while the water is coming to a boil and before you add the pasta. Cook the ground beef in a large skillet. Break it up, cook it completely, and remove the pan from the heat to drain off the grease. Get as much as you can. Use paper towels to sop up as much as possible. 

Then dump in both sauces, and mix it up well. Turn the heat back on and bring the sauce to just boiling, then set it to simmer. That is all there is to it. No extra spices, vegetables, nothing. Of course you CAN put those things in, but in general I don’t bother with it. It would be nice to add in sauteed zucchini or mushrooms, extra diced tomatoes, these are yummy. If your kids are fussy, doing this instantly transforms this dish to poison.

When the spaghetti is cooked, drain it well. A colander is great for this, because you can dump the spaghetti in and leave it, the colander can sit on the pan and drain, everyone’s happy. If it sticks to itself, rinse it with hot water. I’ve heard to put olive oil on it (and I’ve tried it, it was okay), which you CAN do, but hot water is free(ish), and olive oil prevents your sauce from sticking to the pasta.

I plate this at the stove, serve it with garlic bread and grated parmesan cheese, and now that G-man has diabetes we also serve a big salad.