Editor’s note: The theme of Gohan Lab is to help people make simple, tasty “gohan” (meals).

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People who enjoy eggs and pasta will love this week's recipe for spaghetti carbonara, which balances the rich sauce created by adding cheese or cream to eggs, thick noodles matching the sauce, and the black pepper that spices it all up, to create the popular flavor.

Carbonara means “charcoal worker style,” named so according to one theory due to the coarsely grated black pepper used in it that resembles powdered charcoal.

The ingredients we'll use follow the Italian recipe. But this week’s recipe offered by Kuniaki Arima, the chef who supervised the cooking aspect, adopts the “kama-tama udon” style (boiled udon noodles fresh from the pot mixed with raw eggs). The sauce and pasta are mixed in a bowl and the hot noodles naturally half-cook the egg. The dish is foolproof.

Pancetta is salt-cured pork belly that can be used like a seasoning when chopped finely. The garlic and onion add depth to the flavor. Be careful of the heat level and draw out the roasted, sweet flavor to the full.

Mixing the piping-hot spaghetti and sauce lends a smooth shine to the dish. An important tip is to eat it before the luster disappears.

WHEN USING ALTERNATIVE INGREDIENTS

If you don't have all the ingredients listed in the recipe, there are some points that must be grasped when using substitutes.

The carbonara in our recipe will turn out runny if milk is used instead of fresh cream since milk has less fat. If bacon is used instead of pancetta, it not only changes the flavor, it also lowers the salt content. There are a few things that have to be done to keep the dish from turning out too plain.

Try quadrupling the amount of milk to 4 Tbsp, pouring it in the frying pan where the ingredients have been sauteed and boiling it down to about a quarter. As for the bacon, use 40 grams or twice the listed amount, cut in thicker pieces so they become meaty and accentuate the dish.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

(Supervised by Kuniaki Arima in the cooking aspect and Shinichi Ishikawa in the cookery science aspect)

* Ingredients (Serves 1)
100 grams spaghetti (1.7 to 1.9 mm in diameter are suitable), 1/2 small onion, 1/2 clove garlic, 20 grams pancetta, 1/2 tsp olive oil, 1 egg yolk, 1 Tbsp fresh cream, 3 Tbsp grated cheese (Parmesan or pecorino. If unavailable, powdered cheese may be used), some coarsely grated black pepper

About 715 kcal and 2.2 grams salt per portion

1. Bring water to a boil in pot and add 1 percent of salt (10 grams salt per 1 liter hot water).

2. Finely slice onion along fiber. Pound garlic. Slice pancetta into 5-mm-thick slices. Add olive oil and garlic to frying pan and place on low heat. Heat slowly and when aroma rises, add onion and pancetta and turn up heat. Cook to extract water from onion while mixing occasionally. Heat until slightly brown. (PHOTO A)

3. In large bowl, add egg yolk, fresh cream and grated cheese. Add sauteed ingredients and mix. (PHOTO B)

4. Add spaghetti to boiling water. Cook as instructed on heat level that keeps the water simmering quietly.

5. Drain cooked spaghetti and add to bowl right away. Toss entire contents swiftly (PHOTO C), serve on plate and sprinkle with black pepper.

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Kuniaki Arima is the owner-chef of Passo a Passo, an Italian restaurant in Tokyo’s Fukagawa.
Shinichi Ishikawa is a professor at Miyagi University specializing in molecular cooking science.

ARRANGED VERSION

Miso carbonara

This is a simple carbonara recipe incorporating the savory "umami" flavor and saltiness of miso. Use the miso you use daily. Add 1 Tbsp fresh cream and 1 tsp miso in a bowl and mix, dissolving the miso. Add 1 whole egg, 3 Tbsp grated cheese and mix well. Boil 100 grams spaghetti in hot water with 1 percent of salt, drain and mix with miso sauce immediately.

COOKERY SCIENCE

The egg yolk starts to thicken at around 65 degrees, turns like jam at 70 degrees, and rubbery at above 75 degrees. Carbonara and “onsen tamago” (slow cooked “hot spring” eggs) are prepared by using these changes brought on by the temperature. Boiled eggs are immersed in water right after removing from the pot to prevent the yolk from hardening further through residual heat. The yolk becomes powdery when the temperature tops 80 degrees.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Gohan Lab column