Making Homemade Fettuccine Carbonara

I generally begin any of my pasta or bread projects by grinding my own grains fresh from storage.

I have a smaller hand cranked mill in the kitchen, but for larger batches of flour I have a larger bluestone granite stone mill. My smaller hand cranked mill uses steel burrs.

It merely clamps on the edge of the countertop. I’ve found the best pasta is made from durum wheat and once it’s ground — it’s called semolina.

The recipe for the noodles is pretty simple. You’ll need —

• 2 cups semolina flour

• 3 fresh eggs

• ½ teaspoon sea salt

• ½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

• Place the flour on a clean work surface and make a nest. Add the eggs, olive oil, and salt to the center and use a fork to gently break up the eggs, keeping the flour walls intact as best as you can. Use your hands to gently bring the flour inward to mix it. Continue working the dough with your hands to bring it together into a shaggy ball.

• Knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes. At the beginning, the dough should feel pretty dry, but don’t give up yet. It might not feel like it’s going to come together, but after 8-10 minutes of kneading, it should become cohesive and smooth. If the dough still seems too dry, sprinkle your fingers with a tiny bit of water to incorporate. If it’s too sticky, dust more flour onto your work surface. Shape the dough into a ball, put it in a covered bowl with a lid, and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

• Slice the dough into two pieces. Gently flatten one into an oval disk. Run the dough through the pasta roller at the widest setting. Sprinkle flour on top of the two halves. Every side should be floured so that your final pasta noodles won't stick together.

• I use a hand cranked Atlas brand pasta machine. Run the pasta sheets through the pasta cutter (pictured is the fettuccine cutter). Repeat until the remaining dough is cut.

I dry the damp pasta on a wooden dish rack with damp paper towels for storage. Before it’s completely dry (it’s still slightly flexible) I roll the pasta strips in little balls to finish drying until hard.

Cook your pasta for a couple minutes in a pot of water Al Dente. In other words, as firm or soft as you want.

Now to make your egg sauce. You’ll need —

6 ounces of cooked and chopped bacon

About 2 cups of half and half cream

2 large egg yolks

1 1/2 cups of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Fresh ground black pepper (from a pepper grinder)

About 4 tablespoons of chopped basil

Once the bacon is cooked, take it out of the pan, but leave the bacon grease in it.

Pour the cream into the warm bacon grease and bring it to a simmer. Warming up the cream first prevents the eggs from scrambling. Add the eggs next and whisk them in…. And stir in the Parmesan cheese. If it all looks too thin, not to worry — it gets thicker as it cools.

Here’s the trick — turn off the heat to the pan before you add the pasta. Stir the pasta into the warm fettuccine until it’s well coated. Add the crumbled bacon bits and stir some more. Top it all off with the chopped basil and a little bit more Parmesan cheese like it’s a garnish. Dust on the black pepper and plate that stuff up ! It’s ready to eat !

I like to add several slices of fresh pepperoni to the plate as a side dish. It really sets off the creamy fettuccine and blends nicely with the bacon. Everything tastes better with bacon. Mmmmmmm…… I can almost hear my arteries hardening. I love it.