Carbonara

I'm devastated, absolutely guttered.

Last night I was sitting on the couch with Nic talking about something......he'd just finished making a beef lasagne and it smelled fabulous (he really does make a yummy lasagna right down to rolling out the pasta sheets), we were talking about food and I casually commented that the carbonara I made the night before was pretty yummy; to which he replied

"Yeah but mine is better"

My mouth fell open and I of course said "What!" Nic looked at me with a devilish grin and a twinkle in his eye and said it again. What is a girl to do? Of course I took the obvious path and took it all out of proportion. I told him I was guttered, how could he say such a thing, blah, blah. I must of put on a great performance because when I looked over at Max he was sitting staring at us, grinning like a madman and wondering where this was going to go, hand twitching at his face in anticipation.

Now at this point I have to tell you Nic loves ALL things Italian, and over the years he has perfected the art of Italian cuisine, especially pasta making and pasta eating and at this point I have to admit I LOVE his carbonara. It is the classic Roman version with egg, parmesan and parsley all thrown in at the last minute, just before serving.

I wasn't however going to ASK him how he does it because I just don't have that ability and I knew the process so I thought I'd give it a go. If I was to be totally honest I was going to make a tomato sauce but due to the lack of ingredients in the fridge I then decided to make the carbonara, oh well I guess the truth had to come out sooner or later. When cooking the onion, garlic and bacon I sweated it down with the lid on, keeping all the flavour and sweetness in the pot instead of doing what Nic does and cooking it down so the bacon and onion get crispy. I also didn't add two whole eggs as I thought that was to excessive, so I added one whole egg and one yolk (this Nic tells me was my downfall!).

So that is pretty much it, once the eggs were in a bowl I finely grated in some parmesan cheese, mixed in the chopped parsley and loaded up on freshly ground pepper. After the pasta was cooked I left a small amount of pasta water in the pot just to help with a sauce (I hate dry pasta), poured in the bacon, onion and garlic mixture then added the egg and cheese, gave it a good stir and was happy with the result- I didn't realize my beloved was criticising the meal and doing a comparison all though I should of known really. Even the boys devour his version in seconds! With that said, dinner WAS yummy (even better when chilli freak hear grinds on some chilli flakes) but if I had to be truthful Nic truly has mastered the art of a bloody good carbonara; giving credit where credit is due I'll say OK his is extremely good...hows that professor of all things Italian?