Spaghetti carbonara

The dish I always requested for my birthday growing up, spaghetti carbonara still feels like a special treat.

I’ve pared it back from Mama Johansen’s 1980s version, leaving out the cream. Getting a smooth, silky carbonara with no cream follows the same principle as linguine vongole: simply create an emulsion with the fat and some pasta water. It’s not ‘traditional’, but I like Heston Blumenthal’s a