Ingredients
1.5 pounds dry spaghetti
3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons butter
½ pound bacon, sliced into small pieces
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2-3 large eggs
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
Freshly ground black pepper
1-2 cups fresh arugula, chopped
1-2 cups chopped chanterelle mushrooms
Directions
Bring salted water to boil in large pot. This will be used for your pasta in just a little while. Once water comes to a boil turn off heat and cover with lid, to hold heat until needed. While water is coming to a boil do the following:
- Grate 1+ cup of Parmesan cheese
- Whisk together eggs and 1 cup grated parmesan cheese in a very large bowl until smooth and just a little frothy. Let sit a room temp until pasta is done
- Chop mushrooms and set aside
- Chop Arugula and set aside
- Slice bacon into small cubes or into small thin strips
In a skillet, sauté chanterelle mushrooms over med-high heat in 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil until mushrooms just begin to crisp. Transfer mushrooms to a bowl.
Then… add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil and bacon to the skillet and cook bacon to your liking, adding crushed garlic for the last two minutes of cooking. Drain off some, all, or none of the fat – totally up to you. Traditional Carbonara uses all the bacon fat, but I like to drain most of the fat and replace it with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. To each her own.
While bacon is cooking bring pasta water back to a boil, add the pasta and cook according to directions or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian “al dente.”). Drain the pasta well, but very quickly, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to use in the “sauce” if you wish.
Immediately transfer the boiling hot pasta to the large bowl with whisked egg & cheese mixture. Toss pasta into the mixture. This cooks the egg and provides a unique light and creamy sauce. Add some of the hot pasta water if you need to make the sauce a bit saucier. As soon as egg is cooked add mushrooms, bacon (with fat or olive oil in its place), and arugula. Toss quickly to incorporate those ingredients and serve immediately with a little pepper and parmesan sprinkled over the top.
Note: It is very important that the pasta is hot when adding the egg mixture, so that the heat of the pasta cooks the raw eggs.
Recipe submitted by Anna, pieced together from several sources, and then re-created to highlight local & offerings at the co-op.
