Guanciale Pasta Carbonara

So as a Food Network geek and I will admit stalker, I've always been curious about guanciale, Google it for goodness sake!  I again found an American equivalent at the store...Smoked Jowl Bacon, I'm in heaven!  Fatty like salt pork, with some meat, with the bonus of smoke on top of being cured...UM chunky bacon heaven that I can use in so many ways and "MUCH" cheaper than even cheap cruddy bacon.  Oh and with the bonus of  BIG RED I can slice, dice and shred this into anything.

 This is the smoked, cured pork jowl

This is BIG RED.

Tonight I cut and chopped the pork jowl for a slow rendering in a saute pan.   BIG RED was outfitted to shred some American Parmigiana.

Ready for shredding!  

Pasta carbonara can be tricky!  The guanciale needs to be rendered low and slow so as not to burn the pork. 

It takes time...be patient and don't turn up the heat to brown it quicker...you will burn it!!  Browned food is good burnt is NOT!!

As the jowl browns, heat the water for the pasta...use whatever pasta you want, I used fettuccine.

As the pasta cooks I cracked two jumbo eggs, although I could have used 1 1/2 eggs but how do you measure 1/2 an egg????

I take a bit of the pasta water and add it to the browned jowls.

As I finish the jowls I work on the eggs and cheese.  The Parmesan cheese has been shredded and the egg(s)are in the dish ready for beating, I tend to use two eggs as I like a more substantial egg sauce.

Two eggs, whipped to frothy and then 1/2 cup Parmesan added to the egg.  When the pasta is done to your liking and you have added the pasta water to the jowl take a warmed bowl and add the pasta, jowl and then the egg mix...stirring the entire time you are adding the egg.

After adding the egg to the pasta and pork add the remaining cheese and a good amount of black pepper,  I added almost a tablespoon and it was a bit much for my tendermouthed hubby!!  But adding a couple of cracks of pepper is a bit much for him!!  I'm used to HOT southwestern chiles!!!  Oh how I miss my Hatch Hot  Chiles!!!

Here is the final, incredible pasta carbonara with guanciale!