What is pasta, for sure, everyone knows. These are the famous Italian spaghetti. Well, and the Italians know a lot about them! Today, there are hundreds of recipes for making popular treats around the world, and one of them - carbonara paste - is the "star" of our celebration.
Carbonara paste - general principles and methods of preparation
Pasta carbonara (or rather pasta a la carbonara) is a "guest" who came to us from distant Italy, which is a dish of spaghetti with fried slices of bacon in cheese and egg sauce. However, this is a classic, Italian version of the preparation of carbonara paste. In many countries, fat cream is often added to the sauce for taste. Ingredients such as garlic, pepper and other spices are optional and added as desired. No one forbids enriching a dish with your favorite ingredients, adding a little to the classic composition - after all, we are not Italian culinary specialists!
Plus carbonara paste is not only in amazing taste, but also in the speed of cooking! As a rule, thin slices of bacon are fried in a matter of minutes, and pasta is boiled even faster. The main rule that you must adhere to - pasta in no case should not be digested! It is best, as Italians say, to serve spaghetti a little undercooked! In the preparation of cheese and egg sauce there is also nothing complicated. The basis for it is eggs and cheese. The sauce does not need heat treatment, and all that is needed is to fill it with hot spaghetti, mix and wait a couple of minutes for it to “get stronger” from the heat of fragrant pasta.
Carbonara Pasta - Food Preparation
At home, carbonara pasta is made from real spaghetti, guanchial (salted pork cheek), chicken yolks, as well as parmesan and pecorino romano made on the basis of sheep’s milk. Fortunately, spaghetti can be purchased at almost any food outlet. As for the Italian pork cheek, it is permissible to replace it with smoked bacon, and cheeses vary to your own taste.
Carbonara pasta - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Italian Carbonara Pasta
The view of the recipe is as close as possible to the classic, but at the same time - successfully adapted to our kitchen. The dish is prepared very quickly, it turns out healthy, tasty, satisfying and at the same time sparing for the figure. After all, spaghetti is a product made from coarse grades of wheat (this is not bad at all, just the opposite). In general, try to cook a real classic of Italian pasta, you will not regret it!
Ingredients (for 4 servings):
- 240 gr. spaghetti
- 8 gr. salt, ground pepper
- 160 gr. pork breast, cheek or bacon
- nine egg yolks
- 80 gr. parmesan
- for decoration parsley leaves
Cooking method:
1. Cut the pork base into small cubes (slices) and fry in olive oil. Then put it on a paper towel that absorbs excess fat.
2. We put boil water in a pan. While she is boiling, prepare the sauce. To do this, separate the yolks, whisk them with a whisk (not a mixer) until light yellow with a pinch of salt, then add finely grated Parmesan and whisk again a little.
3. There we also send chopped parsley leaves (without stems). Our egg and cheese sauce is ready. Boil the whole pasta whole without breaking, about seven times are crushed from the moment of boiling and mix them with slices of pork, add two or three tablespoons of olive oil and quickly, until cool, pour in the sauce.
4. Stir, close the lid for five minutes, put on a very small fire, and then lay the dish on plates, decorating with parsley leaves.
Recipe 2: Carbonara Pasta with Cream
Many Italian cooks do not add cream to carbonara paste. Since we are not Italians, we must definitely cook spaghetti in a cream sauce. By the way, it’s better to get fat cream for this business, as well as whisk until a half-full mass is obtained, and only then mix with grated cheeses.
Ingredients:
- 200 gr. spaghetti
- 150 gr. smoked ham
- 20 gr. parmesan
- 20 gr. any hard cheese
- 100 gr. onions
- 150-200 gr. fat cream
- 20 gr. unsalted butter
- to taste salt, pepper, spices
- vegetable oil (preferably olive)
Cooking method:
1. Peel, finely chop the onion. In a container for frying, mix the oils (creamy and vegetable), melt, put the onions and fry them until transparent (do not go too far).
2. Cut the ham and lower it into another pan, adding a little oil. Fry until tender. Spread on the surface of a paper towel to absorb excess fat.
3. Put, salted, boil water (about two liters). Boil pasta according to the instructions on the package. Put ham slices in a bowl with onion, pour cream mixed with grated cheese, add the necessary seasonings, salt. Mix and hold a little over low heat. Mix the sauce with spaghetti and spread the carbonara paste on plates.
Recipe 3: Pasta carbonara in the multicooker "in Russian"
Carbonara pasta is a healthy dish in itself. But if you cook it in a slow cooker, then in terms of food quality it will be twice as valuable. So, every housewife in the kitchen has her own miracle device (brand, power, etc.), in which she is well oriented, so we will indicate approximate figures and figures below. Spaghetti in the cooking process will have to be broken, otherwise they will not enter the multicooker.
Ingredients:
- 250 gr. spaghetti
- 250 gr. smoked ham (bacon)
- three cloves of garlic
- 250 ml of 30% cream
- two table. spoons of hot ketchup
- 150 gr. parmesan
- salt, basil
- olive oil
Cooking method:
1. Thinly chop the raw smoked ham. Fry it in a multi-cooker, using the "Baking" mode (tentatively) for about ten minutes. Pass the garlic through a press and add it to the ham. Fry for a couple of minutes.
2. Then add the cream, seasoning, ketchup, salt, mix and bring the mass to thicken (the mode is the same - baking). When the sauce acquires the desired consistency, add grated parmesan. Mix.
3. Spaghetti spread on top and pour them with boiling water (so that to cover the pasta, no more). Close the lid and wait until the pasta is soft (the "Baking" mode continues to work). Then we mix everything, transfer to the "Pilaf" mode. We wait.
4. After the signal we take out the pasta, put it in a deep dish, sprinkle with a layer of grated cheese, decorate with greens if desired and enjoy! As the Italians say - Bon appetite!
Carbonara pasta - useful tips from experienced chefs
- Experienced culinary specialists of Rome advise to shade the dish with quality red wine. Only a few drops are added, which are added during the roasting of the cheek (or bacon), and the dish will gain a truly unique taste;
- In order to make carbonara paste more saturated, you should use several types of cheese for sauce (in Italy at least two types are used);
- Of the purchased spaghetti, it is best to choose the twelfth number - pasta with a round cross section;
- For the preparation of carbonara paste, it is advisable to use olive oil.
