Smokey Southern Spaghetti Carbonara

Hey foodies! I just realized that I hadn’t posted this delish pasta recipe from the southern queen of butter herself, Paula Deen, and I had to fix that. You need this pasta dish in your life. I’m always on the look out for great pasta recipes and this one has become a staple.

Now, I will be the first to admit that sometimes Ms. Paula goes a smidge overboard with food…(who deep fries cranberry sauce??) but you can’t deny that she does southern cooking right. I got this pasta recipe from the Bible… her Southern Cooking Bible that is; a big, thick book full of all her buttery, deep fried goodies. My sister (who now lives in Paula’s home state of GA) was given this cookbook as a gift and brought it with her when she was visiting recently. This was the only recipe we tried but it was definitely a winner! So if you’re looking for a great pasta dish, you’ll want to give this Carbonara a try. :)

Smokey Southern Spaghetti Carbonara -

(Recipe from Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible)

You simply cannot go wrong with bacon, parmesan cheese, hot sauce, and pasta, can you? Not possible. Those are the flavors you will find in this Smokey Southern Spaghetti Carbonara. This pasta dish is rich, creamy, and full of flavor. It’s also really quick and easy to whip up. We substituted the spaghetti for angel hair as we like it better and always have some on hand, and we also doubled the sauce.

Speaking of the sauce, you may notice that it has raw eggs in it and, like me, start to wonder if you’re about to contract salmonella. Well not to worry, the eggs get cooked as you toss it with the really hot pasta, as opposed to cooking the sauce which would scramble the eggs. So the trick is to immediately toss the hot pasta with the sauce and you will live to see another day.

Serve this pasta with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and parsley and devour!

Ahem, it just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t end this blog with this: Wishing you love and best dishes from my kitchen to yours! ;)

Ingredients:
1/2 pound bacon, chopped
1 1/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese (about 5 ounces)
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
Salt
Tabasco or other hot sauce
Black pepper
1 pound spaghetti
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

Directions:
In a large, deep skillet, cook the bacon over medium high heat until crisp, about 5 minutes. Drain the bacon on a paper towel-lined plate. Take the skillet off the heat, but don’t drain off the bacon fat.

In a bowl, whisk together the Parmesan, cream, eggs, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, and black pepper to taste.

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain well.

While the pasta cooks, return the skillet to medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat.

Immediately add the hot pasta, the bacon, and the egg mixture to the skillet; toss everything together to combine. The heat from the pasta and skillet will thicken the eggs into a creamy sauce. Taste and add more salt, hot sauce, or black pepper, if desired. Serve hot.