Pasta Carbonara

In 2009 in Paris, I was teaching English with Kiela Consulting - a little shameless promotion there. My students worked for large newspapers, radio stations, magazines, and international corporations.  Needless to say I met a lot of people who I learned from as much as I taught.

One of my beginner students was Italian but moved to Paris to work for TV M6. To make learning the language as easy as possible, I decided to scrap the textbook for the most part and use daily situations for vocabulary and grammar. One day I thought to use recipes, and she gave me this little gem. It's a classic basic recipe with no surprises, but the goodness lies in doing it right.

Here's what you need:

- Spaghetti (I like capellini because it's a bit thinner)

- A few strips of bacon, cut into bite-sized pieces (depending on how much pasta you want to make)

- One egg per serving

- Fresh grated parmesan cheese (parmigiano-reggiano)

- Salt, pepper, and 2 minced cloves of garlic per serving

- Parsley, if you like

* Cook the pasta in salted water until just shy of al dente - when you drain the pasta, conserve a bit of the starchy cooking liquid, this is important

* Saute the bacon until crispy and drain it, but leave a bit of the oil in the pan

* Add the garlic to the pan and cook it just until it sweats a bit, then season it with salt and pepper

* Return the bacon to the pan, add the pasta, and saute for a minute

* Take the pan off the heat and mix in the egg until it thickens, but you don't want to actually cook it

* Add the parmesan (as much as you want and then add more!) and season it all again with salt and pepper

* The cooking water comes in here - if the pasta is getting too sticky to work with, just add a little at a time

* Now you're ready to serve it, garnished with a little parsley and more parmesan

Delicious AND nutritious.

GG