The best thing about Linguine (or in this case, Fettuccine) Carbonara? It’s up there in the fastest (and most delicious) meals you can make. We’re talking 15 minutes, start-to-finish. Really.
My basic recipe just calls for frying some cubed pancetta in a large pot until crispy, cooking the pasta, and then throwing the pasta into the pot with the pancetta and tossing it all together with eggs, parmigiana, cream, peas, salt, and pepper (go HERE for the recipe, and HERE for a video)…but that’s where I arrive at the second best thing about Linguine Carbonara: you can play with it in accordance with your stomach’s (and wallet’s) desires.
Last night, for example, I wanted to lower the price of the meal, so I halved the amount of pancetta (expensive) and threw in about a cup of chopped mushrooms (cheap) a couple of minutes after I started cooking the pancetta. (Mushrooms, incidentally, are my favorite things to add to meat and pasta dishes when I’m looking to add heartiness while reducing expense; for example, I often replace half the meat in my pasta sauce with chopped mushrooms.)
Some other ways to play with your carbonara:
– Use bacon instead of pancetta;
– Add a chopped onion and/or a little minced garlic (cook it along with the pancetta or bacon);
– Try tossing in a bit of white wine (simmer about 3/4 cup with the pancetta or bacon before adding the pasta and egg mixture);
– Top each serving with a fried or poached egg (growl);
– Swap out the peas for other vegetables (broccoli, asparagus, etc), or skip the green stuff entirely (you might want to add a little parsley for color if you do this).
