Carbonara

Carbonara is a hearty Italian dish with a short list of very bold ingredients.  The flavor of this dish really comes from two ingredients, the aged parmesan cheese and the guanciale.  If you aren't familiar with guanciale, it is a cured pork jowl (cheek).  The guanciale in this dish was from one of our Mangalitsa/Berkshire cross pigs and it was cured on the farm.   

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Ingredients

- 4 oz Red Ledge Farm Guanciale
(Use 4 oz of our bacon if you don't have guanciale)
- 2 oz Parmesan 
(We used a 10 month aged BelGioioso)
- 4 Egg Yolks 
- 2 Whole Eggs 
​- 1 lb Fettuccini 

Instructions

1) Boil the fettuccini until 2 minutes prior to the suggested cook time.
2) While waiting, cut guanciale into strips.  There is more flavor in longer strips compared to it cut into cubes.
3) Finely grate 1.5 oz of Parmesan cheese. 
4) Whisk 4 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs until combined.  Add in the 1.5 oz off cheese and some fresh cracked pepper.  Set aside.
5) Use some olive oil in a cast iron pan to start browning the guanciale.  Once brown and crispy, like in the picture above, remove the guanciale and retain 3 tbls of the remaining grease/oil.
6) Retain 1.5 cups of the pasta water and then drain the pasta with 2 minutes left to cook.  Add it back into the pot with 1 cup of the pasta water and continue to cook it on medium/high heat for the last two minutes.  Once done there should still be about 1/2 cup of water in with the pasta.
7) Remove the pot from the heat.  Add the 3 tbls of oil in with the pasta.  Use 1/4 cup of the retained pasta water to mix into the egg mixture.  Then SLOWLY add the egg mixture into the pasta and mix it in constantly.  Make sure this is done slow and off the heat or you will end up with real yolky scrambled eggs. 
8) Give the sauce a couple minutes to thicken up.  Add in the guanciale and grate the remaining 1/2 oz of cheese over the top.  Add salt and pepper to taste.