Penne carbonara

Firstly, I would like to apologise for having such a big gap between this post and the last one. I had a minor technical problem, which, thankfully, has been sorted out.

Carbonara sauce was the second pasta sauce I ever tried (Bolognese was obviously the first) and I fell in love with the moment I tasted it! I wasn't very good at cooking savoury dishes few years back and as I loved the sauce so much I resorted into using a ready made powder (shame on me!). As my skills in the kitchen developed I decided to try out the sauce from scratch. When I found out how easy it actually was to make the sauce I actually felt ashamed that I didn't try making it before -  I was so sure that something so delicious definitely required hours of complicated cooking, but I obviously was proven wrong.

I consider pasta carbonara a real treat as it manages to combine loads of good things into one dish - pasta, cream, bacon and Parmesan cheese, but it obviously isn't the healthiest of the options. This dish might have a 'treat' status for me, but regardless of that fact it is so simple and fast to make - it all takes basically as long as it takes for the pasta to cook. I really needed something to lift my mood a bit after spending a long day at university and since my sister is staying over there was no better excuse not to treat us to a nice home cooked pasta. This has undoubtedly been one of my favourite recipes for quite a few years now and I'm sure that once you've tried it you realise why :)

Ingredients
(Serves 2)
- 200g Penne (or any other pasta; I used wholegrain)
- 4 bacon rashers
- 2 eggs
- 25g Parmesan cheese (plus more for serving)
- 160ml cream

Directions
Bring a pot of water to boil and add salt. Then add the pasta and cook it until al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, cut the bacon into small cubes and fry it. Then place the bacon pieces on a kitchen paper to dry off the excessive fat. In a medium saucepan, whisk together eggs, cream and the parmesan. Place the mixture on the hob and heat up, whisking constantly to avoid clumps. When the sauce starts to thicken add the bacon and mix until nicely combined.

When the pasta is ready, drain it and add into the sauce. Mix well, divide between two bowls and serve immediately with some freshly ground pepper and a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Recipe from a book "Pastaraamat"