The apologetical Jimmy Akin has today without apology taught me that today is International Bacon Day.
Huzzay! Huzzah!
Bacon!
I have the makings of something with bacon for this evening … or for tomorrow … or perhaps in the week that follows, since I believe there should be a Bacon Octave. Probably tomorrow, my Sunday Supper.
Let’s have a poll. Please choose your best answer and give your reasons in the combox.
I am using the term bacon to include what I have available, that is nearly unlimited good quality bacon and some little pancetta (I don’t have any guanciale and anyone becoming censorious about my lack of authentic guanciale will be instantly banned with extreme prejudice).
What bacony concoction should Fr. Z make?
- Rigatoni (or spaghetti) alla carbonara (32%, 315 Votes)
- Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches (28%, 273 Votes)
- Bacon and eggs (23%, 220 Votes)
- Spaghetti all'amatriciana (14%, 135 Votes)
- Spaghetti alla gricia (3%, 33 Votes)
Total Voters: 973
I would, if I could, invite to this Sunday Supper the Doctor Mirabilis Roger Bacon, Kevin Bacon, Sir Francis Bacon, but never never never the vile modern painter of that name who excreted hideous drek redolent of the the worst of the modern spirit, and the non-homonymous Fr. George Welzbacher, because he likes bacon and hates Francis Bacon, can read Roger Bacon and recount the life of Sir Francis, and has seen the thespian Bacon in the talkies.
UPDATE Sunday:
Having bent my will to the will of the readers, I made spaghetti alla carbonara for supper.
Who knows where this dish came from. Some say GI’s brought it to Rome. HAH, I laugh with scorn, patriotic as I am. It was around before the war. Some say it came from the charcoal makers in the hills, who had the long-lasting ingredients on hand. The ingredients, however, suggest penury. Eggs… the rough cuts of pork cured… pasta. This ain’t cucina sofisticata.
In any event, I found some pancetta in my freezer yesterday and let it thaw slowly during the day. It was fine.
Tonight I used the pancetta, fresh eggs, grated pecorino and parmigiano cheeses, a tiny bit of olive oil, freshly ground pepper, cooking water.
Let the eggs be room temperature before you separate the yolks.
Use freshly cracked, ground peppercorns of a good quality. I am using Penzy’s Black Tellicherry on a very course grind. Pepper was the primary spice of the Roman’s in ancient time, along with garum. I see no reason why we should change. Also, and don’t tell anyone this, you intensify the pepper by grinding a little into your oil at some point so that it fries or toasts. Don’t burn it. Yes, it will burn, like everything else. Pepper has stuff in it that revvs us the human system. Did I mention that I like pepper?
Some people talk about using the cooking water from the pasta in the sauce. I don’t generally do that. However, with this sauce, which has to have a creamy texture, I do. In this case I also use less water than I would normally heat to cook the pasta in order to concentrate starch in the water.
Timing is a key to this, but you don’t have to worry too much. Cut your pancetta into small pieces and brown it. I used just a tiny bit of olive oil, though I probably didn’t have to. The fat will be a bit translucent. You can cut the pork in matchsticks or small cubes.
Alla Carbonara is at the same time simple and tricky. It is simple in its theory and ingredients, but you have to achieve a creamy texture without cooking the egg so that it coagulates, and yet have it hot enough so that it is warm when eaten. If at a restaurant you get a bowl of curdled bacon and eggs, send it back to the kitchen with the harsh words of contempt, a deeply furrowed brown, expressions of vituperation and scorn, shouting, gesticulating, glaring. But the ingredients are truly merciful.
I haven’t made this stuff for a long time. But the voting has required me to give it a try, lo, after all this time.
Boil water and get the pasta cooking. This won’t take long.
Eggs in a bowl. Nothing special there. Four for about two large portions. Obviously the size of the egg matters.
I cut up my pancetta and began to brown it.
When browned, leave it in the pan with the heat off. It’ll need to cool a bit so it won’t make the egg harden from the heat.
Fuzzy photo of my grated cheese going into the yolks.
Think about using half pecorino and half parmigiano or Grana Padano. Using only pecorino can get a little salty for some.
When the pasta is cooked, let it cool for a moment and add it into your yokes and cheese in the bowl along with the pancetta and mix gently with a spoon.
During the mixing/assembly process, add a bit of pasta water to the mix to achieve a creamy texture.
Don’t give into the dark side.
Don’t use cream.
Cream = Novus Ordo.
Egg alone = Extraordinary!
Assembled and plated.
Sprinkle more cheese on top and grind on more pepper.
I used to make this stuff all the time in a restaurant I worked for. I can relate an episode. One night a woman wanted “carabinieri” not “carbonara”. The waitress asked if she meant carbonara or maybe calamari, pointing to the menu. No, she wanted “carabinieri”. The waitress told me. I went out. The customer insisted. I explained that she wanted the “state police of Italy”. She insisted. I asked if it was pasta or something else. Pasta. I made the spaghetti and all was right with the world. Thereafter at the place we called it “Spaghetti Cops”.
So… thus endeth my Sunday Supper of spaghetti alla carbonara. Thanks to the readers for participating in the choice!
And remember, Sundays are good days for making something special and sharing it with others.
Can’t go wrong with bacon. The poll could be your menu for the upcoming week!
http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/
A priest told me about her. Oh, it was YOU. She is the Queen of Bacon recipes.
Where’s the “all of the above” choice?
Minor household member decided on having two lunches upon hearing this news courtesy of Mr. Akin, followed up a bowl of pasta e fagioli alla Nonna with a bacon sandwich.
Six decrees of given bacon?
I think you should have rigatoni carbonara, because I first learned about carbonara from this blog and it is yummy. Also, eggs are good for the brain.
When in Rome, do as in Rome. But to celebrate in America… hard to beat a BLT!
BTW, there is such a thing as bacon dipped in chocolate, if you wish to follow up with a light, cleansing desert.
Carbonara, for sure. If one plans to enjoy a dalliance outside the boundaries of prudent heart living , a job worth doing is a job worth doing right. A fantastic option is thick sliced bacon [at least one inch] grilled over real charcoal ala’ Peter Lugers. Either way, a mere seven hours or so of aerobic penance on the elliptical should reverse the effects of your cured pork fiesta. Enjoy Father!
Good thing this holiday got in before the Ember Days. ;-)
I voted BLT’s. They are easy and delicious! And this time of year, some fresh tomato ought to be in a nearby garden, easily gotten!
Bacon and eggs. Eggs fried sunny side up in the rendered bacon fat. STB-DTR mug of Mystic Monk Cowboy blend.
As you didn’t include that glory of bacon edibles, bacon and ketchup sandwiches, I didn’t vote.
[Gosh. I just… don’t know what to say.]
WHY
I
FRY
The bacon greasy
Slippery slides
Into the pan
My spatula guides.
Then a pop
A snap a crackle
Can wake up sons
From sleepy shackle.
The scent of frying
Bacon in pan
Can lure from dreams
Almost any man.
For I’ve six sons
Lots of work to do
But they won’t budge
If I fry tofu.
No soybean-sissies
Caught dead eating quiche
This mama don’t raise
No sensitives…sheesh!
I’m raisin’ men
For women who’s achin’.
So girls if ya want one…
Start fryin’ the bacon!!
BLTs! On sourdough, with a generous spread of mayo.
Mmm…I’m hungry now.
I would say Rigatoni all a carbonara. That sounds interesting. Never had it with rigatoni. Yum. My mother made it with fetuccini on Wednesday. Tonight its a hamburger with bacon and cheese.
Buon appetito Fr. Z!
I voted for carbonara because I first learned about carbonara, made with bacon, from a Roman graduate student I knew in New York. Now you do admit to pancetta, and you may have other pork products, but carbonara sounds good. So does amatriciana.
Buon appetito a tutti!
I went with Amatriciana, but I coulda gone with Carbonara. I would make it with bucantini, though, because if the sauce is snappy, I like a pasta that fights back: sort of a gustatory free-for-all. [I’ll put bucatini on my wishlist just for you!]
Also, it’s so hot where I am, the thought of something rich like Carbonara isn’t so appealing. Have you heard? It’s hot in Texas. And the National Weather Service, for some reason is reporting cooler temps than the local monitors. So, it’s hot in Texas. Hot, hot, hot.
I’m so hungry now.
You gotta see this: http://youtu.be/CaK9bjLy3v4
Wilted lettuce. It is as close to culinary heaven as it is possible to get without requiring resuscitation.
[Now that you mention “wilted”, I could have added a hot spinach salad. Too late. Rabbit, hole!]
Bacon Maple Cupcakes!!!!! I know it sounds weird… but they are soooo good! If I knew a way to mail cupcakes, I would send you some! :)
I don’t have a cite, but I believe Hillaire Belloc wrote that bacon is proof of the Trinity–how else could something so foul be so good?
I voted for the carbonara dish because it’s so tasty. However, bacon and eggs are wonderful too and a healthier option.
*The Arthur Avenue Cookbook*, which my Bronx-raised Calabrese mother-in-law gave me, has a fantastic recipe for bacon, pancetta, pasta, cream, and white wine. Check it out some time. You won’t be sorry (fifty pounds heavier, yes, if you eat it regularly, but not sorry!).
You could also try the dish that probably should be the Texas National Food: Chicken-Fried Bacon, with cream gravy on the side. [Not bacon-fried chicken?]
I voted BLT because (at least where I am)- the tomatoes and lettuce are in season, the bread & mayo homemade- and using American bacon lends itself to such simple recipes.
Since you live back East, you might be able to get a hold of ‘old country’ (Ukraine, Slovakis, Hungary, Romania, etc) bacon- basically smoked fat with almost no meat. Grill the sliced bacon and let the drippings drop on (homemade) bread, let the bacon get really crispy and then eat it on the bread with chopped green onions along with clear hard liquor. Or eat it raw with a clove of garlic (yuck for me- but certain people love that)
American style bacon is called ‘ham’ in my husband’s language even though they have normal ham as well. Canadian style bacon is called ‘Gypsy muscle’- not very PC, I know
Spaghetti alla gricia is always a favorite, and I can only commiserate with your lack of good Roman guanciale. I can’t get it here, either. I’ve seen SMOKED pig jowls in the store here, but if it’s smoked…no point, really. So my vote goes to spaghetti alla gricia (americana), with bacon and eggs a close second. You can never go wrong with breakfast for dinner. [or even for supper.]
I voted for the BLT, but only if you can get a real tomato, not the no-taste plastic things. This time of year you stand the best chance of finding a nice tomato that hasn’t had all the taste hybridized out of it, so begin with that is my recommendation.
normally I would have said anything carbonara, but it is tomato season, so a BLT would be in order.
BLT…always good on a summer day. Hope you have some home grown tomatoes.
Fr. Z,
Have you ever tried “Bubble and Squeak?” It’s an English cabbage, bacon, and onion dish that’s surprisingly addictive. It was mentioned in the “Wind in the Willows” series, so we tried it just for fun. And it IS fun. [I have had it, yes. And if I get back to Ol’ Blighty this September or early October, I hope someone will make it for me.]
May I suggest Praeline Bacon? Google for it… It is just as amazing as it sounds. (Alton Brown did it first I believe… and his link is first in google)
Uses? Eat it straight… or if you’re feeling healthy, chop it into large bits, and put it on a salad.
–Jason
[Wasn’t. On. The. Poll.]
Hard to go wrong with a BLT sandwich, especially if your tomato plants are still producing. And if it’s for supper, of course a bowl of some sort of soup with the sandwich would be perfect. Perhaps split pea with…. bacon… soup?
[Did you vote?]
yes I voted first, then left comment, as instructed. :-)
I say bacon and eggs for this reason… If you are to have it on Sunday, then the eggs provide a good Ressurection symbolism.
BLT
I hope to see (and you taste) the little things, which can be missed in a saucy dish.
I voted this way – if for anything that *I* want a BLT.
Well, bacon’s going into the oven in a few minutes. =)
No bad choices with bacon. I voted for bacon and eggs, because of how Sunday food fitted together when I was growing up. We were Episcopalian (of the Tridentine rite, LOL). On Holy Communion Sundays, we fasted before church and ate out afterwards. The other 3 or 4 Sundays of the month, we had a traditional Sunday dinner at home after church – fried chicken, baked ham, pot roast, that kind of thing. Sunday night supper was always a treat because we had already been well fed as a family at mid-day. It was things like fondue, or breakfast for dinner, or stuff your own calzones/stack your own pizza. Markedly different from the evening meal other nights, more informal and more indulgent. So from my happy memories of the Sabbath observed in the kitchen by the domestic Church, I vote breakfast for dinner.
…you could of course grill a lovely piece of artisan bread, top it with an appropriate number of bacon strips, then top with a goodly slice of cedar and run under the broiler until your conscience tells you the time is right. Never a bad plan.
Take a hot dog (Hebrew National, of course) and poke a stick in it. Wrap the hot dog in bacon, then coat the monstrosity with beer-battered hash browns (a delight in itself) an deep fry.
Behold the most delicious and unhealthy snack in the world. Enjoy. Then go to confession.
BLT with garlic mayo on some nice large pieces of Italian toasted bread.
Garden fresh tomatoes and lettuce.
But then you could make a day long bacon fest – with Bacon and Eggs for breakfest and then a BLT for lunch and to end the day have Rigatoni (or spaghetti) alla carbonara.
Back when I was in college I worked as a waitress. We could have anything we wanted on the menu for our lunch break – I tried just about everything on the menu, but came back to bacon and eggs most of the time. Bacon and eggs for the win~
I didn’t vote, Father, because you didn’t include the classic bacon dish. For some strange reason, in the US among those who identify themselves as Irish, the eating of salt beef has become ubiquitous. [?!?] That is a dish from a small corner of County Cork only. Throughout Ireland, the classical national dish is bacon; not rashers or slices, but a whole joint of bacon boiled until tender. Then, when it is nearly done, add chopped cabbage to the water (or else cook the cabbage in the water while the bacon is resting. This should be served with floury potatoes (such as King Edwards or Maris Piper) boiled in their skins, and served to table still unpeeled. Each person helps himself to a potato and peels it, eating with plenty of butter and salt. Food of the gods.
And you have a nice pot of bacony stock to use for pea and ham soup the next day, if you care to.
Bacon and Eggs is fine but that is standard breakfast fare. I don’t see how on National Bacon Day anyone could vote for anything other than spaghetti alla gricia. If it wasn’t National Bacon Day different choices would make sense. But today of all days calls for a recipe that highlights the bacon motif. Adding oeufs to the Bacon sends bacon to the background in the Carbonara and no longer makes the bacon the lead thespian in the kitchen. Burying it under piles of cold lettuce and tomato adds a definite cooling effect on Bacon’s grand Day. And adding onions and tomato in the all’amatriciana subordinates the bacon to the everyday heros onion and tomato. In honor of BACON on National Bacon Day, one can only in good conscience vote for the alla gricia.
Long-Skirts…Love the poem! (But I always love your poems!)
I voted for spaghetti carbonara which means that now I simply HAVE to make it for supper! I could eat a plate of it right now but at almost 2pm (UK time) that wouldn’t be quite right!!
I voted for BLT because as much as I love carbonara, I’m not sure there is enough bacon in it to properly celebrate the day. Also, I was thinking about lunch as I read this and now I cannot get BLTs out of my head. I know what I’m having for lunch.
Another vote for Amatriciana. It is tomato season after all. Last Sunday I made bucatini all’Amatriciana with the slight twist of adding a bit of fresh basil. Delightful!
I voted for rigatoni alla carbonara because my lunch in Castel Gandolfo Wednesday before last still lingers in the memory (the best I’ve had anywhere, because the pancetta is more coarsely cut and stronger in flavour than that which is readily available).
If you are really coming to the UK this autumn, Father, I’d more than honoured to make bubble and squeak for you, although, in my view, the best bubble and squeak is to be eaten on the feast of St Stephen (aka Boxing Day), using the leftover spuds, sprouts and bacon rolls from Christmas lunch.
I’d much prefer, however, to give you farfalle alla Nerano (the local dish of a village south of Sorrento where I once spent a holiday); this involves pancetta, garlic, red onion, zucchini and an egg which is added after the cooked pasta is added to the other ingredients. I actually prefer cooking it to carabonara, because it uses the whole egg, and you aren’t left wondering what to do with the umpteenth unused egg white.
The next time you make a Carbonara, father, you should share your method with us. I keep experimenting with Carbonara; while I like my attempts just fine, I know there’s something I’m missing that would push the thing over the top.
I voted for BLT.
I made a BLT pizza the other night that was pretty good. I made the Pioneer Woman’s homemade ranch dressing, put that on pizza dough, then added cooked bacon and tomatoes. After I took it out of the oven, I added shredded lettuce.
Please don’t tell Michelle Obama….b/c I served it to my kids.
You don’t know BLT-in-excelsis? It’s a BLTO. The O stands for–what else?–sautéed sliced or diced fresh onion. Glorious! A BLTO makes a BLT passé.
I am so relieved to see the update. I love love love carbonara but in the original post I was thinking only of American smoked bacon. And while I love love love smoked bacon, in carbonara it would be an abomination. Had I known that you had pancetta and included it under the bacon umbrella, I would have thrown my vote with full heart behind the beloved carbonara. As it was, I voted for bacon and eggs, which is never a bad thing. [But… at the top I said I had some pancetta… really, I did!]
Y’know, I don’t really like carbonara that much (I am just now getting over my childhood abhorrence of eggs), but that looks really, really good. Awhile ago I went with my brother to one of Mario Batali’s restaurants, and I think there was some kind of mild green chile pepper, might have been a jalapeno, in the carbonara he ordered. I thought it seemed like a good idea. Haven’t gotten around to trying it myself, though.
I would invite der Speckpater, Fr Werenfried, who founded Aid to the Church in Need. [Great suggestion! I met him a couple times.]
(Folk buying Mystic Monk Coffee could give an equal-sized donation each time to ACN. )
That looks delicious but….the egg yolks were not cooked, correct?
One option for your leftover bacon is to save it for the dark of winter and make a good frico croccante, a classic Friûl dish, with it. Speck works better, but bacon is far more available and is, in my experience, a fully suitable substitute.
Is there bacon in Heaven?
Father, your meal looked delicious! I haven’t had that dish since my one visit to the Eternal City, where it was served at a wonderful tiny sidewalk restaurant, off the beaten path, but not tremendously far from the Vatican.
And I appreciated the PENZEYS reference! All of your readers who are good cooks should know of this wonderful spice firm. Just walking into one of their stores is a heavenly experience. I have some 40 or 50 of their spices in my cupboard!
Bravo, FrZ! Bacon Day was sufficiently honored with the spaghetti alla carbonara. I fried some bacon to make [real] bacon bits for our salads. My wife is a healthy eater, so I must acquiesce to the provided menus. However, I still suffer a silent death when I pour the freshly rendered bacon drippings into the trash.
I have one question: How did you get the photo of the parmesan cheese going into the eggs? One hand to hold the pan, one to hold the cheese dish, one to hold the whisk, one to hold the camera. Have you finally been blessed with bilocation?
Random Friar-‘Bacon dipped in CHOCOLATE?’ Seriously?
Your pasta and bacon dish looks delish, Father Z! And your story of ‘carabinieri’ versus ‘carbonara’ was pretty funny, too!
I didn’t get to vote in the poll, but I would have chosen a BLT….
Bacon, cabbage and onions…so THAT’S what goes into ‘Bubble and Squeak’! I remember seeing that as one of the hors d’oeuvres for the reception following the Royal Wedding in April. Gotta love the Brits for their colorful and witty culinary names…..!
irishgirl,
Yeah, I got my husband a Bacon Chocolate bar for his birthday. That was in July, and he hasn’t touched it. I’m not going to eat it!
FatherZ,
Your comment and your story re the Spaghetti Cop both happen to intersect with my Dear Old Dad, who was one of those GIs in Italy (Sicily, Anzio, and the winter of 43-44).
He did tell me that the carbonara was beloved by GIs because of bacon-and-eggs homesickness, but he has never claimed that they invented/instigated it.
But what really gave me a laugh was the story about the lady in the restaurant. Dad was a very young lieutenant and just beginning to learn Italian when he tried to summon a waiter in the OClub in Naples by calling for the “cabinetto” . . . sounds like . . . well, you know. Shocked silence throughout the room.
He has told that story on himself for years.
Oh dear! I’m afraid I’m Novus Ordo when it comes to carbonara – I use cream! Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday supper of spaghetti alla carbonara – even the NO can be done seemly and with dignity! [UGH. Return to tradition!]
Father,
Have you tried Rigatoni alla Norcina? That is simply divine. You take sweet italian sausage and pancetta and brown them, and, without draining the grease, add cream to it. You then mix that into the rigatoni, and add cheese, if desired. I first had it a few years ago, and make it whenever I am able to get some good pancetta…
Wow Father, any time you care to come to my house and cook, you’re more than welcome!
And when you prepared the spaghetti carabinieri for the demanding customer, were you properly equiped with the prescribed Beretta 92 (or, if you were the ranking chef in the kitchen, a Beretta 8000) ?
[In the kitchen I always preferred la lupara. More in keeping with my character back then.]
I think the cream in the Carbonara is Neapolitan, certainly that is the only place in Italy I have ever encountered it. It makes you feel sick very quickly, especially as their eggs are very rich.
The true dish is Roman, just egg and bacon as described by FR Z, though some people put in a tiny bit of chopped garlic in the bacon fat.
I had never done the mixing of the cheese with the eggs, I shall try this, it looks a very good idea.
When I was a boy, in smart restaurants in Rome the egg yolks came in a little cup, and you put them on yourself – not really satisfactory as they do not set enough as the pasta has cooled, it is no longer done now.
I am amazed you only got one comment about RAW eggs – shock horror! (she knows who she is!)
I’m interested in the use of pasta water to make the sauce creamy; the versions I ate in Rome and Castel Gandolfo were decidedly uncreamy. They weren’t lumpy, either, I hasten to add, just cheesy/egg yolky, if that makes sense.
I had some chocolate covered fried bacon at a county fair yesterday. It was very good !
“I have eaten animal flesh and enjoyed it” – Spock
You cooked what I had voted for. It looks delicious, you’re quite the chef, Father! I had my laugh for the day reading about “carabinieri” and “carbonara.”
Pulled-pork sandwiches. I am convinced that the Lord saved our animal friend the pig for last, much as Our Lord saved the best wine for last.
I should know better than to masochisticly read these sadistic food-oriented posts of Father Z’s when my options are limited to what’s in the vending machine. Hmmm…what seems most comparable to the pictures I’m looking at right now on Father Z’s blog: Twix, Snickers, or salt & vinegar potato chips?