Spaghetti Carbonara!

One of my all time favorite cuisines, apart from Indian of course, is Italian.  Whenever we go out for a buffet, I always end up ordering for the pasta and in the process don't eat anything else..he he! Both A and my dad say it's a total waste of money taking me out coz I end up eating just one dish. Incidentally, pasta is also one of the easiest dishes to make, especially if you are too lazy to cook a big meal. It gets done in 15 minutes but needs to be eaten instantly. If you microwave it, it loses its flavor completely.

There are different types of pasta. One of my favorites is penne, but I also enjoy spaghetti and linguine. I have already made a linguine dish that you can find here. This dish involves a white sauce and I have used sausage. You can have a completely vegetarian pasta as well if you eliminate sausage, though it does use eggs. So, shall we start? Here goes...

INGREDIENTS (For 1)

• Spaghetti- A handful
• Egg- 2
• Thick cream- 1/4 cup
• Grated Parmesan cheese- 1/4 cup
• Black pepper powder- 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt- 3 tablespoons
• Boiling water- Enough to cook the spaghetti
• Butter- 3 teaspoons
• Sausage- 1 cup uncooked, cut into small pieces/cubes
• Parsley leaves- Garnish

METHOD

• Boil a vessel of water. Once the water is boiling thoroughly, add salt. To this add the spaghetti. Different brands of spaghetti have different cooking times which are mentioned on the packet. I cooked it for 11 minutes.
• While this is cooking, we have to prepare the sauce. Beat the egg, cream and cheese to a smooth mixture until they are all blended properly. Add the pepper powder to this and mix. You an use a fork for this. 
• Heat butter in a separate saucepan and fry the sausages to a golden brown.
• By now, the pasta will have cooked. Save a bit of the liquid in a cup (about a quarter) and drain  out the rest. Transfer the pasta to the pan containing sausages and mix thoroughly.
• Finally add the sauce and the liquid in which the pasta was cooked and coat completely.
• While serving, garnish with parsley leaves and a bit of cheese.

Here's how the final product looks like..

And a closeup!

Notes

• You have the option of making this veg by not adding sausage. You can try not adding egg as well, but the sauce may lose a bit of it's thickness. Worth a try though! 
• Instead of sausage, you can also use pancetta, ham, bacon or any other type of meat that you are comfortable with. 
• Pepper powder is optional. I need spice with everything which is why I added it to the sauce.
• Parmesan cheese is sufficiently salty, so you can use the liquid in which you cooked the pasta only if you want to. The liquid also helps the sauce from being too thick.
• Spaghetti can also be replaced with linguine, penne or any other form of pasta you are comfortable with.

Do try this out and let me know how it turns out! Till next time, God bless!