Australian Women's Weekly Carbonara

Baz's Note:

From the excellent Australian Women's Weekly series, the Italian Cooking Class Cookbook. Recipe in the book only uses 1/3 cup of cream and suggests 250g of pasta whereas I use a whole cup of cream (usually light) and 500g of pasta. Fettucini or tagliatelle is more traditional but my kids prefer it with penne. You can also add a teaspoon of minced garlic while cooking the bacon (before adding the cream and paprika) if you like.

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 5 slices bacon (or pancetta)
• 1 cup cream
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk, extra
• 60 g grated parmesan cheese
• 30 g softened butter
• pepper
• 1 (500 g) packet fettuccine pasta (or tagliatelle)

Directions:

1. Remove rind from bacon, cut bacon into thin strips. Place bacon into frying pan over low heat, cook gently until crisp. Drain off any bacon fat from the pan, leaving approximately 2 tablespoons of bacon fat in the pan.
2. Add cream and paprika, stir until combined.
3. Place egg, egg yolk and 30g (1oz) of parmesan cheese into bowl, mix until combined.
4. Cook fettucine in large saucepan of boiling water as per directions on packet until just cooked. (Do not overcook.).
5. Drain pasta, return to pan with butter, toss over low heat until combined.
6. Add bacon/cream mixture to pasta, toss until combined.
7. Add egg mixture, toss until combined. Season with pepper. Sprinkle with remaining 30g (1 oz) of grated parmesan cheese to serve.