reipan

I actually meant to post this for

rionaleonhart a while ago, and as I've just made and am consuming it for the first time since I arrived in Cambridge I may as well, given that I am supposed to be doing an essay.

Please note: Quantities here are pretty approximate; I learned this through a combination of watching my mother and trial and error. Also, while some things do need exact quantities of everything this doesn't seem to be one of them. Be individual!

Carbonara

feeds ten people, or one MAN. by which I mean, serves one

Ingredients:

- ~125g pasta (about a quarter of a 500g pack, in other words). Spaghetti is traditional, but about anything will work.
- one or two eggs
- parmesan cheese, grated
- salt
- pepper
- single or double cream (optional)
- bacon, or pancetta cubes. If using bacon, one or two rashers; if using cubes, they come in handy little boxes of which you should use one.

Method:

- Sanitation is manly! WASH YOUR HANDS!
- Cook the pasta. I'm going to work on the assumption that you know how to do that; if you can't, Google it.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs; add salt, pepper and grated parmesan to taste, and the cream if using.
- Heat the bacon in a frying pan (or wok, if you like) with a little oil.
- Add the cooked pasta to the beaten eggs mixture. Mix well.
- Add pasta-and-beaten-eggs-and-other-stuff mixture to the bacon pan and cook until the egg is set, stirring constantly to make sure you don't end up with a giant pasta-and-bacon omelette. Unless you want a giant pasta-and-bacon omelette. I guess that would be pretty cool.
- Serve. Enjoy. Unless you've had a really bad day or you don't like bacon or you're allergic to eggs or something. In the latter two cases, though, I'm not really sure why you're making this in the first place.

Yes! Good? I'm told that it tastes okay without the bacon, so vegetarians are free to omit that; I'm afraid vegans are pretty much screwed, though. (Pescatarians can use smoked salmon instead, maybe? I've never tried it, but I can't see why not.)