Prepare the sauce while the pasta
is cooking to ensure that the spaghetti will be hot and
ready when the sauce is finished; it is very important
that the pasta is hot when adding the egg mixture, so
that the heat of the pasta cooks the raw eggs in the
sauce.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the
pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet
firm (as they say in Italian "al dente.") Drain the
pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking
water to use in the sauce if you wish.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over
medium flame. Add the pancetta and saute for about 3
minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the fat is
rendered. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute for
less than 1 minute to soften.
Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss
for 2 minutes to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Beat
the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl,
stirring well to prevent lumps. Remove the pan from the
heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta,
whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not
scramble (this is done off the heat to ensure this does
not happen.) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the
reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired
consistency. Season the carbonara with several turns of
freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt. Mound
the spaghetti carbonara into warm serving bowls and
garnish with chopped parsley. Pass more cheese around
the table.
