I am lucky to have a husband who is a runner. Tyler is currently training for his fourth (say what?!) marathon in December and he’s getting to the point in his training where he has one really long run a week.

Why does this make me lucky? Because this means once a week we carbo-load.

I don’t run.

I don’t ever come close to running.

I did a weird hop-skip thing getting out of my car this morning, and that’s probably as close as we’ll get to a run.

Call me when there’s a Zumba marathon, and then we’ll talk.

But anyway, he asked if we could carbo-load over the weekend, and I said yes. I’m just super supportive that way, you know?

This carbonara dish is one of the easiest and most satisfying pasta dishes around. It’s a simple Italian recipe that uses eggs, pork (an authentic carbonara uses guanciale, but pancetta or thin bacon makes a good substitute), cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano and/or Percorino Romano), and black pepper.

The pork is cooked in olive oil, the cheese is mixed in with the egg, and everything is tossed with the hot pasta. The eggs will create a creamy sauce, but it is important to bring it to room temperature so that the eggs will not curdle when mixing. In this recipe, I tempered the eggs by slowly adding the residual pasta water. Tempering is a good way to increase the temperature of the eggs without scrambling them. Feel free to add more pasta water to the carbonara if the sauce is too thick (some even add a dash of cream). Serve warm and enjoy!