Spaghetti alla Carbonara

When we first went to Italy, we sampled pasta carbonara and instantly fell in love. Simple. Delicious. It is a decadent demonstration of simple ingredients combined into a wonderful dish. We couldn't get enough. It seemed like at every osteria, trattoria, or ristorante we entered someone ordered the carbonara. Everyone else was instantly jealous. It's just that good. 
Ingredients
  • 150 g (3/4 cups) diced guanciale
  • 450 g (2 cups) spaghetti
  • 4 egg yolks (room temperature)
  • 10 TBSP pecorino romano cheese, freshly grated
  • salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Directions
  1. Fry the guanciale in a frying pan (no need for oil, it'll grease its own pan), until it is crips and browned. Start with a cold pan,  it allows the fat to come out gently. 
  2. Put the cooked happiness in a bowl, and let the pan cool as you do the rest.
  3. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl with most of the pecorino to form a paste. 
  4. Bring a pot of salted water to boil, cool the spaghetti in the water until it is al dente. 
  5. Reserve a cup of the pasta water.
  6. Add the pasta to the pan and your egg yolk cheese mixture with about 2 TBSP of the reserved pasta wate. Mix together until smooth and creamy.
    1. The pasta is cooking the egg, not the pan. 
  7. Put the guanciale in the mix and toss it together until every noodle is covered sauce. 
  8. Pepper it, 
  9. Top with the remaining cheese.
  10. Enjoy immediately while it's still hot!
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Cheese

When I was a kid, there were three kinds of cheese: Cheddar, Mozzarella, and Velveeta. Turns out Velveeta isn't even technically cheese. Rather, it is a semi soft orange shelf stable chemical compound created by a Swiss cheesemaker named Emil Frey. Frey was banished from Switzerland to upstate New York where he plotted his revenge. In a fit of cruel genius, he created Velveeta by combining whey, milk, milk protein, modified starch, canola oil, cheese culture, and various emulsifiers. No need to suffer, turns out the world is full of cheese that is magical, wonderful, and beyond delicious.