Cooking Badge

Here's my recipe for the Brown Owls cooking badge. I used to work with lots of Italian chicks, and Rita originally wrote out this recipe for "proper Carbonara" for me, and I promptly lost it before I had a chance to try it...until Neil Perry came to the rescue.

Spaghetti Carbonara

Mmm, I love pasta, I saw Neil Perry cook this on the Lifestyle Channel a few years back, and it’s been a favourite ever since. I hate that sludgy-oily-floury-creamy-sauce Carbonara that lots of places seem to think is the way to do it, this one is much better.

You need:
120g chopped bacon
2 large Garlic cloves, or a tablespoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
Salt
2 Eggs
1/3 cup Parmesan (freshly grated is nice)
Chopped parsley or herbs to taste
500g Spaghetti
Black Pepper

To do it:
Boil water and cook spaghetti until it’s “al dente”. In the meantime, put the oil and bacon in a frypan and cook on low heat for 5 minutes, and then add the garlic. Then brown the bacon for about another 5 minutes, prodding it with your wooden spoon to make sure it’s not sticking to the pan. While that’s cooking away, beat your eggs together with some herbs of your preference or fresh chopped parsley, and add salt to taste. Add your cooked and drained spaghetti to the saucepan and mix together. Then add the egg mix, your cheese, and the black pepper and toss together quickly. Serve and eat while it’s hot, and it’s yummy!

NB. I think Neil Perry's version was a bit more "upmarket" than this, with proper Italian meat (what's that called?) freshly picked so-and-so, extra virgin this and newly grated that. But using your normal pantry stuff works okay too.