Fettucine Carbonara al Funghi

A pasta dish so gorgeously tasty, and yet so simple to make - there really is no special faff involved in preparing this, and it can be ready in less than 15 minutes. I prefer to use fresh pasta rather than dried, but thats merely personal preference! Also optional, is the mushroom component. Some people don't like them, that's okay - it's adaptable as a recipe! :)

You will need the following ingredients:

Fresh or Dried Pasta (up to you to determine portion size!)
1 cup of cubed Ham or Bacon (yes, i actually use a coffee cup to measure!)
6 Mushrooms
1 clove of garlic (crushed)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
Coarse ground black pepper
1 tablespoon of parmesan (fresh grated or dried - either works!)
3 tablespoons of cream
1 egg yolk

Utensils needed:

Medium saucepan
Large frying pan
Chopping board
Sharp knife
Small mixing bowl

First things first - get some water on the boil. While that's doing - take your cubed ham or bacon, and put in a frying pan with the garlic, olive oil & oregano on a medium heat. Chop the mushrooms while that's cooking, and add the mushrooms to the frying pan, and stir with a wooden spoon every so often, making sure you don't overcook it If you get the timing slightly wrong, it'sokay - turn the heat down, or off completely, and leave it to sit until you're ready to use it. Anyway, by this point, the kettle should have boiled. Add the water to the saucepan, and put on a medium-high heat with a pinch of salt. Just a pinch, mind!

Take your pasta and start the boiling process - if you've used fresh pasta, the rule of thumb is 3 to 4 minutes to cook fully, and 2 minutes for al-dente. We'll go for the happy medium of 3 minutes.

While the pasta is on the boil, you'll want to sort out the sauce. Take your bowl, add all three tablespoons of cream, the parmesan and the egg yolk. Beat through with a fork until you have a nice, thick looking sauce, it should only take seconds to do!

Your pasta should have finished by now - so take it off the heat, and strain in a colander or sieve, before putting it back in the pan. Take your ham & mushrooms off the heat, add to the pan with the pasta. Then take the sauce you just whisked up, and add that too. Mix through with the spoon you used for the first step, and then divide, and serve. You should end up with something like this:

After serving, i like to add a little more parmesan on top - flakes, grated, however you want, it's entirely up to you! Oh, and of course, enjoy :)