The Story
We’ve been making all kinds of creative pasta lately, with unusual ingredient lists, playful dough colourings, and fiddly shapes. Well, this week we’re going back to basics, and cooking up a crowd-pleasing carbonara. To add a little Pasta et Al spin, we’ve made our tonnarelli with half rye flour, and smoked it briefly before tossing it through the sauce. It’s a creamy, cheesy, smoky smile-bringer.
It’s also one of those great meals that’s quick to pull together, particularly if you’ve already got your pasta ready, but takes just enough finesse to make it special. It lifted our lockdown spirits, and we hope that it brings you a little classic pasta joy too.
The Pasta
Apart from half of the flour being rye, this is a straightforward 100g flour to 1 egg kind of dough. The rye adds a little earthiness that works well with the smoke, but you can stick to all plain flour and it’ll still turn out pretty good. Form a flour well with the eggs in the middle, mix it all together and knead vigorously for 10 minutes, then seal it up and rest for 30.
Roll the pasta out nice and thick – if you’re using a 9-setting machine, step it through to a 5. Then cut it into sheets of around 30cm, and get chopping.
You’ll know by now that we’re kind of obsessed with the chitarra, and the amazing sharp edges that it gives to your pasta. If you don’t have one though, hand cutting your pasta with a sharp knife will give you a similar result.
Next, get started on the sauce. The clock’s ticking once it hits the heat, so prep as much as you can in advance. Mix together the eggs, yolks, cheese, and pepper, and then fry up the prosciutto while you bring a big old pot of water to the boil.
Boil the tonnarelli for 2-3 minutes; ensure that’s it cooked, without any raw dough showing if you cut into it, but still firm. Drain, retaining the pasta water. Light your woodchips, and then use a grilling rack to lay the pasta over them. Seal it up and let it smoke for 5-6 minutes. We just used two aluminium roasting trays with a grilling rack in the middle, clamped shut with stainless steel pegs.
While that’s smoking, use the same pan from the prosciutto to fry the pancetta, and rest a large stainless steel mixing bowl over the filled pot that you boiled the pasta in. You want to heat the bowl up enough to gently combine the sauce with the pasta, without scrambling your eggs.
Drop the freshly smoked tonnarelli into the pancetta pan, toss it through for a minute or so on medium-high heat, and then transfer it to the mixing bowl. Slowly pour the egg mix in, stirring vigorously to avoid clumping, and adding a little retained pasta water if it seems too dry, Alternatively, you can allow that pancetta pan to cool down a bit, then just combine everything in there.
Plate up with the crispy prosciutto crumbled on top, extra grated cheese, and a crack of fresh pepper. Recommended eating with the largest fork twirls that you can fit into your mouth without choking.
Yours in pasta, buon appetito,
– Al & Al.
Equipment
- Pasta roller and cutter (if not using a rolling pin and knife)
- Chitarra (optional)
- Smoker, or roasting trays with grill rack
- Handful of wood chips for smoking
Ingredients
Pasta
- 100 g rye flour
- 100 g bread flour
- 2 eggs
Sauce
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup grated pecorino
- 1 tbsp olive oil we use Rio Vista Olives' Gigi
- 40 g prosciutto
- 140 g pancetta chopped into narrow strips; substitute with guanciale or bacon
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Pasta
- Form a flour well, add the eggs into the centre, and then use a fork or your hand to bring it together into a loose ball. Gradually add water, 1-2 tbsp at a time, if dough is too dry.
- On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough by hand for 10 minutes, then seal in cling wrap. Rest for 30 minutes, away from direct sunlight or heat.
- Using a pasta machine, roll the dough through on the thickest setting 2-3 times, folding over itself in between passes. Then step up incrementally to a medium thickness, 5 on a 9-setting machine.
- Cut the pasta into lengths of around 30cm, lay along the chitarra and roll firmly with a pin until all pasta has dropped through. Otherwise roll through a machine spaghetti cutter, or fold and slice by hand. If not cooking and smoking immediately, transfer to lightly floured backing paper lined trays, and refrigerate uncovered for up to one week.
Sauce & Smoking
- In a bowl, mix together the eggs, yolks, cheese, and pepper to taste.
- Fry the prosciutto in the olive oil over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes until crispy. Remove from the heat.
- While the pancetta cooks, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Drop the tonnarelli in and cook for 2-3 minutes until no raw dough is visible when the pasta is cut into. Remove and drain, turning off the heat, and retaining the pasta water.
- Light the wood chips and layer them smouldering in a smoker or aluminium roasting tray, under the grill rack. Lay the pasta on top and seal to smoke for 5 minutes (we used stainless steel pegs to clamp a second aluminium roasting tray over the top). While it smokes, sit a large metal mixing bowl over the pot of pasta water to heat it up.
- Add the pancetta to the pan that the prosciutto was cooked in, and fry for 5-6 minutes until crunchy.
- Toss the smoked tonnarelli into the hot pan with the pancetta, then transfer it all to the warmed mixing bowl with the egg and cheese mix. Stir vigorously, ensuring egg does not clump. Add a little pasta water if sauce is too dry.
- Serve with the crispy prosciutto crumbled on top, extra grated cheese, and a crack of pepper.
