Carbonara

1. Render the meat: Slice the guanciale as thinly as you can - with a good knife and the guanciale being mostly fat, it should feel like thinly slicing room temperature butter that doesn’t melt. Cook the sliced guanciale over low-medium heat until the fat has rendered and the guanciale slices are crispy. Set the crispy guanciale aside, and leave the fat (2-4 teaspoons, depending on fat tolerance).
2. Prepare the sauce: Whisk together the whole egg plus three egg yolks with most of the grated pecorino romano and cracked pepper. Grating the pecorino with a fine microplane will help create a really smooth sauce without requiring much heat.
3. Boil water with salt, and cook the pasta for 10 minutes. While the pasta’s boiling and the pasta water starts to get starchy, slowly add some of the boiling pasta water into the egg-cheese sauce mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, while whisking vigorously. Whisk in a total of 5 tablespoons.
4. Add the hot drained pasta to the pan with guanciale fat, on very, very, low heat. Alternate adding the sauce and more pasta water, tossing constantly, until the desired creamy consistency is achieved.
5. Plate the pasta. Add the guanciale crisps, a few more cracks of pepper, and the remaining pecorino romano. Serve.

Lazy but risky but also high reward version: Boil water and cook pasta in the same pan where the guanciale fat is, but you need to have a good idea on how much water you need so you don’t throw away the fat with excess water. Then add the egg-cheese mixture a few tablespoons at a time, tossing vigorously. High reward because if you get the amount of water right, it will be very starchy.

Optional: Serve with some fresh arugula, which has its own peppery notes and freshness to combat the fat.