Spaghetti Carbonara

Ingredients

• vegetable or light olive oil, for frying
• 50g smoked or unsmoked pancetta (or guanciale if you can source it), cubed 100-125g spaghetti
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
• sea salt and freshly ground
• black pepper

Directions

Bring a pan of lightly salted water to the boil.

Heat a little oil in a skillet or frying pan over a medium heat, add the pancetta and fry for a few minutes until golden and crisp around the edges. Add the spaghetti to the boiling water.

Add the garlic and chilli to the frying pan and cook a further minute. Remove from the heat.

In a bowl, combine the egg, grated Parmesan and a good crack of black pepper.

When the spaghetti’s al dente, scoop out an espresso cupful, or a few tablespoons,of the pasta cooking water and stir this into the egg and Parmesan mixture to warm it and slightly emulsify the sauce. Drain the spaghetti, return it to the pan, add the egg and Parmesan and toss to coat the spaghetti in the sauce before adding the pancetta, garlic and chilli. Serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan on top.

Variations:

– For a richer sauce, add an extra egg yolk to the egg mixture.

– Substitute the Parmesan for Pecorino Romano.