Hi And Bye: A Very Quick Recipe

Argh!!! Exam season is upon me and I have only got a week before a major deadline AND my French speaking exam. Scarily, in a month's time I shall have finished my exams AND be half way through my degree *cue manic nail biting terror*. This means that my recipes will be uploaded somewhat erratically as it will be a nightmare few weeks but I do have a few posts up my sleeve for you pre-written to avoid me stressing out too much. On a brighter note, I got 67 in my last essay, which is worth 40% of one module's final mark - for those of you who aren't familiar with university marking - one teacher said she'd only ever given 80 once before and that was because she couldn't have sat down and written a better essay herself. 67 is equivalent to a high 2:1, which is great. I also had a presentation to do on Wednesday, so hopefully that went well, I think it did but I won't get the mark for a few weeks.

This recipe is one for a dish that seems like it should be really easy to make but often isn't. It's pasta carbonara and I've made Theo Randall's, Antonio Carluccio's and countless other recipes before, all with varying degrees of success. Until this one. I was in town with my friend, Adam, and we were discussing what I would cook for lunch (I was going for poached eggs to be healthy and easy) when he announced that what he really wanted was carbonara, so I rose to the challenge and we picked up some spaghetti before heading to the flat to find a suitable recipe. That recipe was from BBC food website and I've pretty much recreated it below. On a side note, Adam did really well that week - I cooked for him three times in four days!

Spaghetti Carbonara

Serves 2

Takes about 15 minutes to make

Ingredients

140g dried spaghetti (more if you're hungry)

pancetta or bacon (enough for 2 AKA as much as you'd like, within reason)

2 medium eggs

50g-ish grated parmesan plus more to top it with

Black pepper

Method

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.

Meanwhile cook the pancetta in a frying pan that is large enough to add the pasta to later.

Once the pasta and pancetta are appropriately cooked, add 3 tablespoons of the pasta water to the frying pan before draining the pasta and adding that to the frying pan. Toss to combine and take off the heat.

Beat the eggs and grated parmesan together in a bowl and season to taste (if the pancetta is salty then you won't need salt, just lots of pepper, but do check first).

Pour the egg and cheese mix over the pasta and toss to coat.

You want the eggs to coat the pasta and thicken but not scramble, you can return the pan to a very gentle heat if you need to, turning the pasta constantly, add more water if it seems very thick.

Transfer to bowls and top with more parmesan and black pepper before eating.