For anyone that has known me for even a small amount of time, they will know that carbonara is my death row dish. Salty, creamy, cheesy, carby goodness. You could say I am fanatic about carbonara. Which is why I have been heavily testing this recipe for the better part of 12 months.

There are some incredibly strong opinions on carbonara: ingredients, how to make it, the type of pasta etc etc. I could go on but honestly the longer I spend writing this the longer it will take for me to publish the actual recipe so I will cut it short and just note that you only need four - yes, four - ingredients to make a proper carbonara and no, none of them are cream.

Guanciale, eggs, Pecorino Romano, black pepper.

The key to creaminess is utilising the magic that is pasta water. Trust the process and trust your judgement. Although there are only a few ingredients, this is a somewhat technical dish, but an easy one once you’ve tried it.

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Spaghetti Carbonara

Serves 2, generously

If you’ve not tackled a carbonara before, I recommend you read through the recipe thoroughly and the cook‘s notes before starting.

Ingredients

• 300g pasta - spaghettoni is often the pasta of choice for carbonara, but spaghetti, bucatini or rigatoni will suffice

• 100g guanciale

• 2 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks

• 150g Pecorino Romano - very finely grated

• Lots of ground black pepper - quantities will be divulged in the method notes

Method

1. Cut the hard skin off the guanciale, slice it lengthways into 1cm strips and then cut into 1 cm pieces.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for your pasta.

3. In a separate pan start to fry off the guanciale on a gentle heat - no need to add any oil as its fat will melt.

4. Meanwhile in a bowl add your eggs (whole and yolks) and beat well. Stir through the grated pecorino and a really decent amount of freshly cracked black pepper (about 1 heaped tbsp). Set aside. 

5. When the guanciale is nice and crisp, turn off the heat and using a slotted spoon remove the guanciale from the pan and onto a plate - reserve the fat in the pan, and add another good crack of black pepper (1/2 tbsp).

6. Add the pasta to your boiling water and cook for approx a minute under packet instructions (just before it’s al dente).

7. Add the pasta directly to the pan with the guanciale fat (reserving the pasta water) and add a half ladle (roughly 45ml) of the water with it. Turn the heat back on the lowest flame, and allow the pasta to continue to gently cook, giving it a toss in the guanciale fat and pepper.

   THIS IS WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING! You will need to move relatively quickly.

8. Add a ladle (roughly 90ml) of the pasta water to the egg mixture and stir well until the pecorino and egg mix is nice and smooth and quite liquid, like pouring cream.

9. Take the pan with the pasta/guanciale off the heat, pour in the egg mix and stir, toss and mix continuously until it starts to thicken, similar to a béchamel sauce. If you feel it’s still a little too liquid after a minute or so, put the heat back on the lowest possible flame and keep stirring/moving constantly until you’ve worked the egg mixture into a beautiful crema. It’s important to keep the sauce moving constantly.

10. Stir through the reserved guanciale before serving.

11. Serve immediately!! With extra black pepper and a dusting of pecorino. 

Notes and troubleshooting

• Guanciale is a cured meat made from pork jowl/cheeks. If you can’t get hold of any, substitute it for pancetta. However if you can find it at a local deli, it’s worth it.

• Finely grating the cheese helps it melt deliciously smoothly with the eggs and avoids any stringy, melted cheese bits in your sauce. I used the finest, powder grade on a box grater.

• Adding pasta water to the eggs before adding to the pan will essentially do the job of tempering and help you avoid a scrambled egg situation. I find this step is essential in carbonara making territory. Think of it as preparing your eggs for the heat of the pan, so they’re not “shocked” when added - effectively this helps stabilise them.

• Carbonara is similar to an emulsion, where we’re combining water with fat and agitating it to form a stable sauce. And while there are a few different methods for bringing a carbonara sauce together, this is the most forgiving in my humble opinion. I prefer to add a bit more water to the eggs to create a loose cream-like consistency, before adding to the pasta, then coaxing it into a luscious crema. You can always thicken a sauce, but you can’t fix a scrambled one. This process is similar to thickening a custard or béchamel sauce, just to give you a visual.

• Make sure you keep extra pasta water on hand to lend itself to the sauce as needed, if you find it’s too thick and need to loosen it.

• Carbonara is best served immediately as the sauce will continue to thicken as it cools. If you are planning to serve this family style, I recommend taking it off the heat while it’s still just a touch too thin, so you don’t have a coagulated sauce when serving at the table.

Continuing with my passion for making fresh pasta at home (you can follow along for some pasta appreciation here) I dipped my toes back into the waters of hand rolled pasta with a batch of cavatelli rigati or cavatelli with ridges. You could also call these little grub-like pasta gnocchetti sardi or malloreddus, which I’m sure some pasta purists/Sardinians might argue is the correct name for these for whatever reason (DM me for a rant). Ultimately as far as fresh and hand rolled pasta goes, these are incredible easy to make and catch sauce beautifully in their ridges, so their name doesn’t really make a difference to me.

OK so let’s talk sauce. Alla vodka is traditionally a combination of crushed tomatoes, onions, cream and of course its namesake, vodka. The origins of this ridiculously moreish sauce are disputed (like most great things), but I like to think this was conjured up in the kitchen of Dante in Bologna during the 1980s, which is what Pasquale Bruno Jr., author of The Ultimate Pasta Cookbook reckons. Typically the pasta of choice is penne, but I think anything with ridges - or rigate - work just as well, which is why this cavatelli makes for a perfect pairing.

After first trying this dish in the Swiss-Italian region of Ticino back in ~2010, over the years I’ve tried a number of recipes to recreate the magic at home, always following the more traditional method of using crushed tomatoes and cooking them down over time. Totally delicious, but never making the cut to become a return favourite.

Enter tomato puree.

Now I’m not really one to follow celebrities, and I really never thought I’d be looking to Gigi Hadid for a recipe. But! she did happen to popularise this recipe by posting about it on Instagram, and it introduced me to subbing crushed tomatoes with tomato puree. Using tomato puree results in a super silky sauce with a beautifully concentrated tomato flavour, and as an added bonus it can be made in less than 10 minutes. (Side note: credit where credit’s due; I’ve got to give my mate Becky some kudos for getting me onto this recipe after she cooked this for dinner one night (thank you)).

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Cavatelli alla vodka

Serves 4

Sauce lightly adapted from here

METHOD

FOR THE PASTA DOUGH

1. Add the semolina flour to a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the water into the well.

2. Using a fork, start to incorporate the flour into the water little by little, whisking until the liquid resembles pancake batter (note - the majority of flour should still remain around the sides of the bowl).

3. Using your hands, start by scooping flour from one side of the bowl, and folding it over the liquid/pancake mix. Use your fingers to press the flour into the liquid until incorporated. Rotate the bowl 45 degrees and repeat. Keep doing this until all of the flour is incorporated and you’ve got a somewhat shaggy dough.

4. At this point transfer to your work surface and knead the dough for 5-10 minutes until you have a smooth and shiny dough that doesn’t stick. If it’s too wet, add a touch of flour.

5. Wrap tightly in clingfilm and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes.

SHAPING THE CAVATELLI

1. Cut off 1/8 of the rested dough (make sure to keep the rest covered in clingfilm while you work), and roll it into a sausage about 1/4” thick

2. Cut the sausage into thumbnail sized pieces, and roll each into a little ball using the palm of your hands

3. Using a gnocchi board (or a fork if you don’t have one), place one ball at a time at the side closest to you, and using your thumb press into the ball and away from you, rolling the ball as you do so. Repeat with remaining balls and dough following the same process.

4. Place the cavatelli on a lightly floured board or plate and cover with a clean, dry tea towel until you’re ready to use.

FOR THE SAUCE

1. Bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook the cavatelli for around 6-8 minutes depending on their size. Semolina/water pasta tends to have a chewier, denser consistency.

2. Meanwhile heat olive oil in a large pan and add the chopped shallot, cooking for a few min before adding the garlic and chilli flakes.

3. Add the tomato puree and cook for a minute or so until it takes on a deeper colour.

4. Add the vodka and let the alcohol cook out (this should only really take a minute), then stir through the cream.

5. Just before the pasta is ready, add the butter.

6. Using a slotted spoon, add the cavatelli (along with some of the pasta water) directly to the sauce, stirring through with a good handful of grated parmesan. Check for seasoning and add a splash of pasta water if the sauce seems too thick.

7. Serve with a drizzle of good olive oil, fresh basil and extra parmesan.

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE PASTA DOUGH

450g durum wheat semolina flour

225g luke warm water

FOR THE SAUCE

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 shallot, finely chopped

2-3 garlic cloves, sliced

1-2 tbsp dry chilli flakes (optional)

80g tomato puree

50ml vodka

120-140ml double cream

25g butter

A couple of handfuls of grated parmesan

Fresh basil to serve