This recipe for spaghetti carbonara is one of the simplest around. It doesn’t use any cream or milk, so I was surprised how creamy and tasty it turned out. I found the recipe from the Barilla website, the addition of the asparagus is an idea I got from watching Jamie at Home.

Ingredients:

4 ounces (110g) of streaky bacon, cut into thin strips
a bunch of asparagus, chopped into 2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
7 ounces (200g) of spaghetti
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 cups of freshly grated Romano cheese (works just as well with Parmesan)
freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add salt.
2. Stir-fry asparagus over medium heat with a little olive oil till slightly tender.
3. Cook bacon in pan over medium heat until golden brown and crisp, stirring frequently. Add olive oil.
4. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta, reserving a cup of the pasta water.
5. Add pasta and asparagus to the bacon mixture, season to taste with black pepper and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. If pasta becomes too dry add the reserved pasta water.
6. Turn off the heat. Add eggs, stirring constantly. The residual heat from the pasta will cook the eggs. Toss gently with cheese. Transfer to serving platter.

Serves 2.