Intermission - Cabon-Ari
Ari hummed tonelessly as she flitted around the kitchen. Penny had gone off to the camp leaving just her and Giuseppe to run the Cocina once again for the first time in a long time. Giuseppe had gone that morning to see Penny and her friends off on their quest, leaving Ari to mind the restaurant in his absence. Luckily, there hadn't been much of a breakfast rush, so she'd been more than able to keep things running smoothly. Her skills in the kitchen had definitely rusted, though, but the only thing for it was to get back to it. She found Giuseppe's recipe cards and began flipping through them before stopping at the first one to catch her interest.
Pasta alla Cabonara.
Definitely one of the trickier ones to get right, but all the more delicious for it in her opinion. As far as the ingredients went, they were simple enough - though Giuseppe had noted that it took twice the amount of yolks as whole eggs to make the sauce just right.
2 ounces (340 grams) uncooked pasta
6 large eggs
2 ounces (60 g) freshly-grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus extra for garnish
fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
8 ounces (225 g) guanciale, diced into ½-inch cubes
Reaching into the cabinet, she pulled out a large stock pot and filled it halfway with three quarts of water - adding a pinch of salt before setting it to boil. Next, she grabbed a large, nonstick sauté pan and set it to warm up over a medium high flame while she chopped the guanciale. Once finished, she added it to the heated pan to cook for the next ten minutes - making sure to keep an eye on it so the meat didn't burn.
Once it was finished cooking, she removed the meat from the pan and set it aside before killing the heat and dumping the black pepper into the grease to bloom for the next minute while she retrieved the pasta.
"Hmm," Ari weighed the decision between spaghetti and bucatini. "Oh! I'll use the thick straw spaghetti! I remember Giuseppe mentioning that it helps pick up creamy sauces better."
By this point, the water in the pot had begun boiling, so she dumped in the bucatini pasta and set a timer for 5 minutes. Next, she cracked the eggs into a large metal bowl, making sure to separate the yolks from four of them and setting the whites aside for later. She grated the cheese into the bowl with the eggs, then slowly whisked in the peppered guanciale grease while making sure not to scramble the mixture.
After five minutes, Ari removed a half-cup of water from the boiling pot - setting the timer once more for three minutes before combining the starchy water into the egg and cheese mixture with the whisk. As soon as the timer went off again, she turned off the heat, grabbed a pair of tongs and transferred the pasta into the bowl with the sauce before adding the guanciale and setting it over the still steaming pot of boiling water effectively turning it into a double boiler by using the steam to heat the bowl. Stirring constantly, she was rewarded by the sauce thickening very slightly.
"Hmm, what smells so good in here?" Giuseppe asked, walking in just as Ari finished transferring the pasta to a plate.
"I made lunch," Ari beamed. "Pasta alla Cabon-Ari."
"So, what are these egg whites being used for?" He asked, gesturing to the bowl of separated whites.
"Oh those? I was gonna use 'em to make meringue cookies for afters," Ari said, grinning.
"Sounds delicious."