Pasta lovers & chefs: Best creamy bacon carbonara (with extra garlic) recipes?

I'm trying to emulate the recipe from my old take-away joint, so variations to try are welcome, but it seemed pretty basic, yet delicious... Thankyou!Pasta lovers %26amp; chefs: Best creamy bacon carbonara (with extra garlic) recipes?
Rather than bombard you with recipes just a couple of general pointers.


They probably used pancetta rather than bacon so that will be one difference. Also if it was italian style carbonara rather than the Americanised version it wouldn't have cream in it.


Also make sure that you use fresh parmesan... oh, and they may also have had pecorino in it too.





Edit: Deva, Heavy Cream is a US term for a rich cream with a fairly high fat content of around 36% or more. Its use in the recipes of other posters is to make a cream based sauce for the spaghetti.Pasta lovers %26amp; chefs: Best creamy bacon carbonara (with extra garlic) recipes?
Hi! I'm Italian...I think your recepts are right....but what is heavy cream??? Ciao!


Deva
Carbonara


';This carbonara is a delectable, mouth watering pile of yummy goodness. I recommend a nice salad with it - that's all you will need for a complete meal.';





Original recipe yield:


6 servings


INGREDIENTS


鈥?5 teaspoons olive oil


鈥?4 shallots, diced


鈥?1 large onion, cut into thin strips


鈥?1 pound bacon, cut into strips


鈥?1 clove garlic, chopped


鈥?1 (16 ounce) package fettuccini pasta


鈥?3 egg yolks


鈥?1/2 cup heavy cream


鈥?3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese


鈥?salt and pepper to taste


DIRECTIONS


1. Heat olive oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Saute shallots until softened. Stir in onion and bacon, and cook until bacon is evenly browned. Stir in garlic when bacon is about half done. Remove from heat.


2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain pasta, then return it to the pot.


3. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, cream, and shredded Parmesan. Pour the bacon mixture over the pasta, then stir in the cream mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
To make a carbonara better than any of the restaurants I have been to, you will need:





1 pound of fettucine (or spaghetti)


4 eggs


1/4 cup of butter, cut into small chunks


1/4 cup heavy cream (really; the lighter stuff just won鈥檛 mix right)


1 cup grated parmesan cheese (no, not from a green cardboard tube!)


1/2 pound of bacon, cut into small pieces (remember, they will shrink, so not too small)


1/4 cup chopped parsley (if you can get the Italian variety, all the better!)





Optional: 1 chopped onion (onion goes so well with bacon! But it is not traditional)





Timing is essential in making a carbonara. When making an egg sauce, you cannot cook it with direct heat, or else you will scramble your eggs. You need a large ceramic oven proof dish, which you will preheat to about 300 degrees. After the pasta is cooked, it will go in this dish, and the heat from the dish will be enough to cook the sauce.





Also, it is important that the cream, butter and eggs be at room temperature to start, so make sure these sit out long enough to warm up before starting this dish. Butter will take up to 2 hours or so to soften, so make sure you give it at least that long.





Typically I put my pasta water on to boil, start cooking my bacon, and begin preheating the baking dish all at the same time. It is not a problem if the bacon is done cooking early, as it can sit and drain on some paper towel for a while. If you are using a chopped onion, cook it with the bacon to drive your neighbors crazy with jealousy!


Pasta takes anywhere from 7 to 10 minutes to cook, so once your pasta goes in, you have just enough time to prepare your sauce, and then catch up on your reading for about 5 minutes. Beat the eggs together in a large bowl. Add the cream and beat together until mixed. Go read.





When the pasta is done cooking, put it in the preheated baking dish. Toss the pasta as the butter melts into it. Pour the cream and egg sauce over the pasta, and toss it until all the pasta is well covered. Add the bacon (and onions if you have them), parmesan cheese and parsley, toss a bit more, and serve. If you are in the mood, this goes really nicely with a big red wine: Shiraz is my favorite choice.





I got this from a web site and like it, but I'm with you, I like the garlic, so I tossed it in with the bacon and onions but not until the end because I didn't want to chance my garlic scorching (it turns bitter). I also like this with toasted sesame seeds on top because it gives the dish another dimension.





Carbonara is a great sauce and so simple, but easy to screw up and hard to find a good one in a restaurant - always better to make your own. Good luck!