Carbonara for One (very hungry person)

I love carbonara. Haven’t found the perfect recipe yet though, especially if only making for one. So I asked on Twitter. Naturally someone came to the rescue (thanks Shane). This is my adaptation of their recipe. Now, it says it's for one, but I found it to be more like two regular servings (or one really big serving). That said, it's a much more reasonable amount to make than most other recipes I've found.

Update: I’ve since refined this recipe, which can be found here.

Carbonara for One (Very Hungry Person, or Two Normal People)

1. Put on a pot of salter water to boil and heat oil in medium frying pan

2. While water is heating, dice 2-4 (depending on size) cloves of garlic

3. Dice half of an onion (again, depending on size, if your onion is small use the whole thing)

4. Grate lots of Parm. No, like lots of Parm.

5. Dice pancetta (4-5 slices)

6. Sauté onion until soft and translucent

7. Once onion has softened add garlic, and sauté until fragrant

8. Remove onion/garlic mixture to plate - at this point your water should hopefully be up to boil

9. Add half a package of rigatoni to salted water and set timer (package said 12 minutes, I found 10 to be sufficient)

10. While pasta is cooking add pancetta to pan used for onion/garlic, and sauté until crisp

11. While pancetta is cooking, crack two egg yolks into a bowl (perhaps more/less depending on how big the eggs are), add lots of black pepper and add a whole whack of parmesan (yes, this is a scientific measurement)

12. Mix egg/cheese together - it will likely form a thick paste, so I just do it with a spatula - and reserve a cup of pasta water

13. Once pancetta is cooked remove with slotted spoon reserving rendered fat in pan, and be sure to remove the pan from the heat, allowing the oil to cool slightly (if you’ve timed this right you should have a couple minutes left on your pasta cooking, which means the pan has plenty of time to cool)

14. Once pasta is cooked, remove half of the pasta to your pan with the oil using slotted spoon (this will allow a little bit of pasta water to fall into the pan), and drain the rest of pasta in colander and add to pan (if you’ve got a spider you can just remove all your pasta with that)

15. Add onion/garlic/pancetta to the pan with pasta and stir to combine

16. Add egg/cheese paste to pan with pasta and stir to combine, until smooth and silky. If things are too thick, add a splash of water

17. Grate extra black pepper

18. Serve with lots of parmesan sprinkled on top