I am 36 today (whooo....), and after an appalling birthday evening the night before last attending a cooking class that taught me nothing and made me spew (literally) thought I would cook myself a birthday dinner last night.
I have never made the Hazan carbonara directly. I have cooked it indirectly from Neil Perry's The Food I Love. He credits Essentials generally as a book at the end so I am only guessing he has drawn from Marcella's writing on this one. He doesn't use parsley and he throws in prawns optionally. That's right, prawns.
Last time I cooked that it was fabulous.
This time I cooked from Giuliano Hazan's 30 minute pasta. It was pretty much the same technique: cooking the pancetta in butter, boiling off some white wine, and mixing it with 2 cheeses in specified proportions along with some eggs. Giuliano uses 2 egg yokes and 2 eggs.
It was fabulous again. Very creamy and luscious. But of course without the cream. Carbonara does not have cream. That creamy stodge you eat when you are out is not carbonara. At least, not this kind.
It was extremely filling, no doubt due to the eggs. We also probably ate more than a nonna would have recommended. Because of this there was little appetite for the second course, which was pork sausage with beans from Every Night Italian.
It didn't work out so good. Epic fail, was the comment to me. I denied this, and it was reduced to a fail. I won't be making this one again.
But the carbonara is on my go list.
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