Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: How to make classic spaghetti carbonara in under half an hour

This is a quick and easy dinner to make now the kids are back to school

How is it almost September? The summer is flying by, even more so than usual in a year where time seems to have little meaning as our usual routines have had to be abandoned. I would have thought that when each day is largely like the last time would seem to slow down, that the days would drag. Instead, the opposite has proven to be the case, for me at least. It feels like summer has barely begun, and now it is almost over. When every day is pretty much the same as the last, they fly by without us noticing. I think the anticipation of landmark moments like travel, weddings, parties, sporting events and concerts help us to mark time and give it meaning. Without them, time stops making sense.

Thankfully, as we slowly begin to return to some sort of new normal, the landmarks are beginning to happen again. Schools are reopening, some already have done so this week, so across the country lots of families are getting back into that familiar routine. It will be a blessed relief for many after a year when our children have missed out on so much. It will also be a busy time, between the last-minute scramble to find those one of two schoolbooks that were inevitably out of stock or adjusting the weekly shop for school lunches and evening meals and all the other bits and bobs that will need sorting.

Planning a few quick and easy dinners will help. Meals that excite the family’s tastebuds at the end of a long day but can be made without too much fuss and effort. Pasta is always a crowd pleaser, and carbonara is a great option. Made in the traditional way, using eggs and parmesan cheese as the basis for the sauce, this is a simple and delicious dish. Resist recipes that use cream, they are an aberration to any Italian cook and not nearly so tasty. Use pancetta if you can find it easily, but if you cannot, some good unsmoked streaky bacon will also be delicious. If you want a vegetarian version, mushrooms and hazelnuts are fantastic in a carbonara sauce. Simply sauté some mushrooms in olive oil with garlic, some fresh thyme and rosemary instead of the pancetta and onion in the recipe below and then cook as per the rest of the recipe. Top off the dish with some roughly chopped roasted, skinless hazelnuts and lots of parmesan shavings. Delicious.

This recipe serves four and will take about twenty to thirty minutes to both prepare and cook.

Spaghetti Carbonara

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Made in the traditional way, using eggs and parmesan cheese, this is a delicious dish

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 20 mins

Total Time

 30 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 125g pancetta or unsmoked streaky bacon

• 1 small onion

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 100g fresh grated parmesan cheese

• A little olive oil

• 4 large egg yolks

• 350-400g of dried spaghetti or linguine

Method

1. Put a large pan of water on to boil, add just a little salt. Be careful not to oversalt the water as you will be using some of it later in the sauce. A little less than a teaspoon is plenty. Finely chop the onion and garlic. Chop the pancetta or streaky bacon.

2. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and add the chopped bacon. Fry until the bacon is crisp and golden, this will take about five minutes.

3. While the bacon is cooking add the pasta to the pan of boiling water and bring it back to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pan and cook for ten minutes or until the pasta is done but still has a little bite.

4. Remove the cooked bacon from the pan and set aside.

5. Add the onions and garlic to the frying pan and sauté until soft, about another five minutes. While the garlic and onion are cooking, whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl with some fresh ground black pepper. Add the grated parmesan to the eggs and mix it to combine. When the pasta has about three minutes left to go, take a ladle of the cooking water from the pasta, and add that to the egg and cheese mixture. Whisk it to combine it well. Put the cooked bacon back in the pan with the sauteed garlic and onion and warm it through for a moment.

6. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, reserving just a little more of the cooking water in case you need it to thin the sauce, and pop it back in the pan.

7. Do not return the pan to the heat, instead finish the dish off the heat or you will scramble the eggs when you add the sauce. Add the bacon, onion and garlic to the pasta and pour over the egg and cheese.

8. Using a large fork or tongs, lift up the pasta and mix it with the sauce so that everything is well combined and coated in sauce. The sauce will thicken nicely, but not scramble, this will only take a minute or two. If you think the sauce is a little thick, add a few tablespoons of the reserved pasta cooking water and mix that through.

9. And that is it, you are ready to serve. Divide the pasta between four plates or pasta bowls and top it with lots of parmesan cheese shavings. Have it with some garlic bread and a fresh green salad if you fancy it. A wonderful, tasty dinner in twenty to thirty minutes that the whole family will love.