THE ESSENTIAL MAN

Beer during breakfast and lunch, wine during dinner and gin for a nightcap.

That was the standard day in the life of 17th century England, as water wasn't safe to drink. Soon, a new beverage would find its way from the East. Coffee. And in 1650, England's first coffeehouse opened. Moving from a depressant to a stimulant saw a rise in intellectual thinking and creativity. Thus, coffee is often attributed to The Age of Enlightenment.

So I wasn't surprised how many of my friends in the creative field are coffee lovers. In this new series, I sit down with them and discuss their love for coffee, get them to tell me their daily coffee routine and share a cup or two of the thinking man's drink.

Carbonara can be intimidating. The key (like everything in life) is to keep it simple. As little ingredients as possible. Egg, cheese and meat. No peas. No onions. The one universal golden rule is to never use cream.

Traditional carbonara will use guanciale, an unsmoked italian bacon, pecorino cheese and eggs.

Guanciale can be hard to find, so pancetta is a close substitute. Bacon can be used as well. Mixed with the eggs, it gives the dish a very breakfast taste. For me bacon's smokey flavor is a bit overpowering. Parmesan reggiano can be used instead of pecorino.

My personal ingredient preference are parmesan and pancetta. For this particular post, I decided to use pecornio and pancetta.

Gear

Pasta pot (Always cook pasta in a large pot to ensure even cooking)
Strainer
Large pasta bowl for mixing
1-cup measuring cup
Cheese grater
Spatula and Tongs
3 bowls (to hold separated egg yolks, grated cheese and sliced meat)

Ingredients

1lb Dried spaghetti
5 oz diced pancetta, gunciale or bacon
3 Egg yolks
2 cups of freshly grated pecorino or parmesan cheese
Kosher salt
Fresh cracked pepper (keep a pepper grinder on hand. The more the better.)
Olive Oil

Make

Bring large pasta pot water to a rolling boil. Add pasta and a few pinches of salt.
While the pasta is cooking, heat a small pan of olive oil and add meat. Cook until it starts to crisp and fat begins to render (5 mins). Crack in some fresh pepper and stir. Continue to cook until pepper is fragrant.
Take pan off heat. Add meat, oil and pepper to the large pasta bowl to cool. (1 min)
Add eggs and cheese to the cooled meat and oil and mix into a paste.
Cook pasta until al dente (soft with a slight bite, about 10 mins total). When done, scoop out 1 cup of the pasta water with the measuring cup. Strain pasta.
Add a little of the pasta water to paste to create a nice creamy sauce. It's importantly do to this using a little water at a time and mixing to prevent the sauce from becoming too watery. Add pasta to bowl, crack more pepper in and toss with tongs to combine. Add more pasta water if needed.
Plate. Crack more pepper and sprinkle with more cheese to serve.