The Golden Ratio of Spaghetti Carbonara

The most delightful experience when cooking is to finally master something you’ve repeatedly messed up before. It gives one a sense of possibility–in cooking and in life. For me, this happened when first I made Ruth Reichl’s recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara.

Spaghetti Carbonara is meant to be eaten on cold nights in large bites and gulps. Made with eggs and bacon, it’s more sophisticated than the universally-beloved spaghetti with butter and parmesan, yet only slightly more complicated, and perfect when made for one or two.

Spaghetti Carbonara is a simple dish, but badly done, it’s really dreadful. I know, I’ve botched it before. First there was the time I made it for staff meal at the fancy restaurant where I worked. I dumped several pounds of hot cooked pasta into the eggs and lo and behold, the heat held by five pounds of pasta completely scrambled them–making a dish of dry pasta and coagulated egg. At least there was still bacon. Then there was the time that I ignored Ruth’s recipe and tried to get away with using an entire egg with a small batch of pasta for myself. The egg never cooked and most of it just sat, raw, at the bottom of my bowl. 

The solution to these mishaps is to never make Carbonara in large quantities and never ignore the golden ratio of Carbonara. Easier to remember than 1.6180339887, it is one large egg to half a pound of pasta. Less egg and it will be dry, more and there will be uncooked egg at the bottom of your bowl (which, as we’ve discussed, is totally revolting).

Slowly over time, my version of Reichl’s Spaghetti Carbonara has become adulterated, man-handled by cook friends and their ever-constant need to make perfectly good things even better. Now I add a bit of sauteed onion and a splash of cream. It hardly changes the essential character of the dish; and it does, truly, make this classic even better.

Spaghetti Carbonara

serves 2, but feel free to double the recipe

1/2 lb. spaghetti, cooked in plenty of boiling salted water

4 pieces of thick cut bacon, if it’s not thick cut, use six, (oh hell, use eight), cut into 1/2” wide pieces

A couple of tablespoons of chopped onions (for the love of god, do not actually measure this, use as much as you like, and if that means none at all, that’s fine by me)

1 large egg

Splash of cream (think about a couple of tablespoons; this is optional)

Much parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

Boil water; start cooking spaghetti. In a saute pan, cook the bacon pieces until they are about halfway done. Add the onion and cook until golden brown. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the egg(s) with the cream, some salt and pepper, and finally the cooked bacon and onion. When the spaghetti is done, drain and immediately dump the hot pasta over the egg mixture. Quickly toss the bacon and egg mixture with the pasta until it is evenly coated, the egg will cook and thicken as you do this. Toss in parmesan cheese, season with more salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with more parmesan cheese.