Pasta Carbonara

Carbonara can be a little tricky to make but it's worth the effort because the sauce is so damn good. Don't use bacon for it because the bacon is too strongly flavored and will take over the dish. Pancetta is the way to go here.

Ingredients

• 1 lb bucatini (or whatever pasta you want really)
• 1 1/2 C diced pancetta
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 C grated parmesan cheese
• pepper
• 1 C frozen peas
• 1 tbsp parsley, chopped

Preparation

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to boil. Add pasta and cook until, stirring ocasionally, until al dente.

Meanwhile, cook pancetta over medium high heat until just barely crisp. Set the pancetta aside, but reserve the fat in the pan for later.

Discard four of the eggs' yolks (or save them for custard). Whisk together the four whites, the entire remaining egg, the cheese, and half the pancetta. I like to whisk this together above the steaming pasta pot to get the eggs to cook a little bit. Add fresh ground black pepper to taste.

A few minutes before the pasta is done cooking, add the peas to the pot. If you have fresh peas instead of frozen, they really only take a minute to cook. Once the pasta is done, strain, reserving 1 C of pasta water. Remove the pot from the heat and return the pasta to the pot.

Stir the egg mixture and parsley into the noodles. Add reserved pasta water 1/4 C at a time to reach the desired consistency of the sauce. Garnish with the remaining pancetta.