How I (Italian born and raised in Italy) make Carbonara Spaghetti for my Canadian husband

Source

(The picture is just for showing the dish) I have made this version of carbonara spaghetti cooking for my Canadian husband. I am Italian and the original recipe is slightly different. You should be using just pecorino cheese and guanciale (pork’s cheek) for it but it seems like this version has more flavour and so I just cook it that way for him and my friends now. Everyone loves it! English is not my first language so don’t mind all the spelling mistakes you might find.
__________________
Ilaria’s carbonara (4 servings)
500 g spaghetti
200 g pancetta (Italian bacon)
50 g pecorino cheese
30 g parmesan
4 eggs
black pepper
salt
1) Cut the bacon in thin cubes. Fry it on the pan (without any oil) at a low flame until crispy. Keep it in the pan with the fat you’ll add to the pasta mix later.
2) Boil the water with a bit of salt. Make sure not to put a lot of it because the bacon already gives the dish a lot of flavour. The water has to be slightly less than half of the pot.
3) In a bowl mix the eggs with a fork for just a few seconds.
4) Grate the pecorino cheese and the parmesan and keep aside.
5) Cook the pasta when the water’s boiling and cook it until “al dente”. This means cooking the pasta until just moment before it’s ready, when it is slightly tougher to bite into. This is “al dente” (lit. at a tooth). Before using the strainer keep a glass of cooking pasta, in case you need to make the pasta more creamy later.
6) In the bowl with the eggs add all the other ingridients: bacon (with the fat from the pan), pecorino and parmesan and then the pasta, and some black pepper and then mix well. If the eggs and the cheese look too dry on the pasta and you want to make it creamy pour the glass you kept from the cooking water to give it a more creamy texture, and keep mixing. Lastly add more cheese or pepper if needed.
My grandmother came over from Sicily – Here is her version:
Before you follow the steps,
Boil water and cook your spaghetti al dente (biggest mistake Americans make, OVERCOOKING PASTA!
1) cook 1 package of bacon in a pan
2) remove the crispy bacon, set aside
3) add chopped garlic & chopped onion to the bacon grease. I add one large onion, LOTS of fresh sliced garlic, slice it fairly thick – you want crispy little garlic chips
4) add olive oil & a stick of butter to the pan – no measurements, but you should have 1/3 bacon grease, 1/3 olive oil, 1/3 butter. Sprinkle parsley into the pan.
Let it cook until just before the slices of garlic become too dark (crispy, but not black)
By now, EVERYONE in the house is smelling this amazing aroma.
5) get an egg and separate the yolk – give the yolk to your cat or dog.
6)In a huge pot, add your drained spaghetti, the egg white (just 1)
And the sauce you made and stir well. Add in the crumbled bacon
7) sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese – LOTS
8) add salt & pepper if you’d like.
9) enjoy.
I grew up calling this “Garlic Spaghetti”