Cheater Carbonara Recipes

Now this is our idea of comfort food. Creamy and rich, it's the quintessential dish for a chilly evening. We like to splurge every once in a while and add a knob of butter to the cheesy egg sauce just to round it out. We've left that option up to you, however. Either way, we can't think of a more classic or satisfying pasta dish.

Provided by Food Network Kitchen

Categories     main-dish

Time 20m

Yield 4 to 6 servings

Number Of Ingredients 8

• Ingredients

There is an edge of obsessiveness to carbonara - and I gave in to it completely by starting to make my own guanciale, the cured pig cheek central to most Italian versions of the dish. There's no real need to; it's available online, but I was inspired after eating a wonderful meal at Vetri Ristorante in Philadelphia, and buying a cookbook, "Rustic Italian Food," by its owner, Marc Vetri. He made it sound easy - and it is. It's also satisfying. Guanciale is generally cured for a week, then hung to dry for about three weeks, which is how I usually make it. A fireplace is perfect. But Mr. Vetri has a version that cures for only three days, then is baked. If you order raw cheeks, they need to be trimmed. You want to end up with a neat, flat slab, roughly an inch and a half thick. The key is to cut off the glands, down to the first level of meat, and all excess fat. Here is Mr. Vetri's recipe:

Provided by Ian Fisher

Categories     project

Time 3h15m

Number Of Ingredients 8

• Ingredients

Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 187, UnsaturatedFat 6 grams, Carbohydrate 3 grams, Fat 11 grams, Fiber 0 grams, Protein 18 grams, SaturatedFat 4 grams, Sodium 273 milligrams, Sugar 2 grams