Bacon Spaghetti Carbonara

Dice bacon

You can use bacon, guanciale or pancetta. They all work pretty well for this. I tend to favor pancetta just because the spices are usually more pronounced. But it's often more expensive and harder to find than bacon.

Render bacon

Heat some olive oil in a pan over medium-low heat. Drop in the bacon and stir it around. Cook just until crispy and remove from heat.

Grate parmesan

Grate the parmesan as fine as possible. The finer the cheese is grated, the easier it is to melt the cheese. I used a microplane.

Combine water eggs and cheese

In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs with a splash of water and the grated cheese.

Add salt and pepper

Season with a pinch of salt and a few turns of pepper. Mix well.

Cook spaghetti

Boil spaghetti in salted water. You want the pasta to be slightly undercooked, just on the verge of al dente. The package will have a recommended time range. Shoot for the lower end of the range. Remove the spaghetti using tongs.

Add cooked spaghetti to pancetta

Stir the spaghetti into the pancetta.

Stir in 1/2 a cup of pasta water

Cut the heat and pour in 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Hard part: gently cook the egg

Stir a little pasta water into the egg mixture. Then, as you stir the spaghetti, pour the egg mixture into the spaghetti. Keep stirring for about a minute. The goal is to very gently cook the egg and melt the cheese.