Bringing Home The Bacon Spaghetti Carbonara

I have now found myself one of those people I always said I would never be: a woman with a career, a child and a husband. "Having it All" in other words. As such, I have am in a conundrum,  still wanting to cook (a la June Cleaver) but needing it be simple and easy after a tiring day at the office and helping with math homework. Enter a great spaghetti carbonara recipe. Simple, delicious, and ingredients I generally have in my refrigerator/pantry every day: bacon (mmmmm), eggs, pasta, garlic and Parmigiano cheese. This recipe comes via Ruth Reichl, former editor of Gourmet Magazine (may it rest in peace), from a cookbook she wrote in 1971 living in New York and unable to find a job she liked. Which, by the way, is about as good a reason as any to write about food and cooking. Anyway, it works, and tastes likes you put more effort into that than you actually did, thus allowing one to feel as if they have it all.

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Need I say more?


The Recipe:

1 Supportive Husband
1 Flexible Child
1 pound Spaghetti
1/2 pound good  thickly sliced bacon
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano cheese
Fresh ground pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. When it is boiling, throw the spaghetti in. Most dried spaghetti takes 9 to 10 minutes to cook,and you can make the sauce in that time.
Cut the bacon crosswise into pieces about 1/2 inch wide. Put them in a skillet and cook for 2 minutes, until fat begins to render. Add the whole cloves of garlic and cook another 5 minutes, until the edges of the bacon just begin to get crisp. Do not overcook; if they get too crisp they won't meld with the pasta. Meanwhile, break the eggs into the bowl you will serve the pasta in, and beat them with a fork. Add some grindings of pepper.

Remove the garlic from the bacon pan. If it looks like too much to you, discard some, but you're going to toss the bacon with most of its fat into the pasta. When it is cooked, drain the pasta and immediately throw it into the beaten eggs. Mix thoroughly. The heat of the spaghetti will cook the eggs and turn them into a sauce. Add the bacon with its fat, toss again, add cheese and serve. Serves 3.