Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Tonight I made a traditional Italian dish for my friend who recently had a baby. The best things about this recipe are that it is SUPER easy to make and most people have most of the ingredients on hand. Apparently my friend and her husband (and their 3 year old son) thoroughly enjoyed it. So I decided to share the "oh so easy" recipe. (-:

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Ingredients:

1 lb box of spaghetti1/2 lb bacon (or pancetta....it was traditionally prepared with guanciale, but we DEFINITELY can't find that one in our little one horse town)
5 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
3-4 Tbsp EV Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook spaghetti according to directions.Meanwhile, cut up bacon into smallish pieces and pan fry them in the olive oil (heat the olive oil in your skillet first). You want crispy pieces....they'll get bogged down with the sauce later on.
When your pasta is done cooking, put about 1/2 cup of the pasta water in with your egg yolks and beat with a fork. Add pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon) and a cup of cheese into your egg yolks.

Add the bacon (grease and all) to your pasta and mix to coat. Immediately add the egg yolk mixture to the pasta and mix. The heat of the pasta will cook the egg yolks. Add salt to taste. Dress with some chopped, flat leaf parsley and the remainder of the cheese.

That's it! You're done! And you end up with an amazing Italian dish!