There is nothing as comforting and delicious like a good and classic pasta dish sometimes and carbonara is one of my favourites. You know, it was only a few years ago that I discovered in classic carbonara recipes, cream is not used and I was more than delighted to note that as I always refrained from making carbonara at home since it felt too sinful what with the cheese and the cream so I only order it occasionally at restaurants. With classic carbonara, only eggs and cheese are needed for the sauce - of course the ratio of the eggs and cheese may vary and it is totally up to you how 'cheesy' you want your dish to be. I like to stick on the not-too-cheesy side and allow guests to add more at the table if desired.
This dish was cooked, photographed and served in under 30 minutes. Preparation is minimal, you only need to dice up the bacon and rinse some spinach. Add a clove or two of minced garlic if you like as well. Timing is pretty important too in this dish as you don't want the pasta to go cold before it is ready for tossing with the other ingredients. Freshly grated cheese works the best with this recipe but of course you can substitute with store-bought grated cheese (usually pecorino is used) although I have had good results with just parmesan as well. Instead of spinach, you can also add mushrooms - in fact pancetta is more the classic meat of choice than bacon but the latter works great I think.
