Spaghetti carbonara with Bacon and creamy sauce

A Carbonara is A simple & quick to make dish that can be portioned for one person or scaled up for a dinner party. There's very little prep time and the dish can be prepared in the time it takes to cook a pan of pasta.

recipE - Items purchased from Tesco, click images for link

2 Egg Yolks

150ml Double Cream

Packet of Linguini pasta

250-300g Bacon or 130g Panchetta- I used unsalted cooking bacon from my butchers Malcolm Michaels in Leeds market. £1 for a kilo , plenty for bacon butties the next day!!

2 teaspoons of Garlic Puree

Block of Parmesan Cheese

directions

Place enough pasta per person on to boil in a pan of salted water, whilst this cooks start the rest of the preparation.

​Take the block of Parmesan cheese and a fine cheese grater, it needs to be fine or the cheese won't melt in the sauce. Grate around 5-6 tablespoons as per the second picture, if you like your sauce cheesier add a little more.

Cut up the bacon into strips leave the fat on as this will help to cook the bacon so it doesn't go dry.

In a deep frying pan add a few tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tea spoons of garlic purée

Add the bacon and stir to coat the bacon with the garlic and oil

Whilst the bacon is cooking add the two egg yolks into a jug and beat with a fork, stir in half the cheese mixing well to avoid lumps.

When the bacon has cooked remove from the pan with a slotted spoon to leave the garlic infused oil in the pan

Stir the cream into the pan and cook to reduce down. When simmering add the bacon back to the pan and coat with the cream. Continue to cook until sauce is simmering. Take the boiling pasta from the pan and add to the bacon pan. Don't worry about a bit of water coming into the pan, it helps with the sauce.

Remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the egg and cheese mix. You don't want to do it whilst still on the heat as you risk it scrambling.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and serve