The Best Spaghetti alla Carbonara Recipe

i hate going to the eye doctor. hate it. i'd rather go to the dentist. i hate it. my eyes are really light sensitive and i blubber like a baby when they put drops in my eyes. i love my eye doctor, though--she's wonderful, and is the only person alive allowed to touch my eyes. so, i went, and i endured, and my eyes were good, and my prescription didn't change at all so i don't have to buy new glasses--yay! to celebrate, i decided i wanted one of my favorite dishes: spaghetti alla carbonara. i usually make the recipe from tyler florence's ultimate cookbook, but i thought i remembered seeing a recipe in the The New Best Recipe. it's a The Best vs. The Ultimate throwdown--which recipe would reign supreme? oh, the drama! i stopped by the store to get the things i knew i didn't have at home, then got home and looked up the recipe. uh oh. they're different. The Ultimate calls for heavy cream, onion, and parsley; The Best calls for white wine (no cream), garlic (raw, added to the egg-cheese mixture) insead of onion, and both parm-reg and pecc-romano (The Ultimate is only parm-reg), and no parsley (and one fewer egg). oh, i guess you noticed the peas in the photo. neither recipe calls for peas, but i like peas in mine, so i always add them. deal with it. fortunately, i had the wine and garlic called for in The Best; i didn't have the pec-romano. so, i just used parm-reg. and added peas, of course. two differences in techniques as well: The Best has you place a large, heat-proof bowl in the oven at 200 degrees as you prepare everything else, then mix all the ingredients in it, to keep the pasta warm (The Ultimate has you place an inverted plate over the bowl after you've tossed everything together and let the collected steam keep everyhting warm and finish cooking the eggs). the other difference is that it has you toss the pasta with the egg & cheese mixture first, then add the bacon (The Ultimate mixes the bacon with the egg mixture first before adding the pasta). The Best claims that by adding the bacon by itself after you've tossed the pasta with the egg mixture, the bacon will stick to the sauced pasta and distribute itself evenly rather than just stay at the bottom when you try to toss it (as it does, in fact, in The Ultimate version). so, i made The Best version with all parm-reg (and a spash of cream to the egg mixture--i couldn't help myself). and peas, of course. and the result? very good. better than The Ultimate? yeah, i'd have to say so. though i think i'm glad i added the cream. i kinda miss the smell of the onion cooking with the bacon in The Ultimate version, but i like the bright finish of the raw garlic in the The Best version better. the wine helped keep this heavy dish a little on the lighter side, and i liked that. plus, the technique of adding the bacon after tossing the egg & pasta really did help distribute the bacon more evenly. but they both truly miss the mark by omitting the peas (which is odd in tyler's case expecially, since he adds peas ((and bacon)) to his macaroni and cheese!)--the peas put it over the top :) thumbs up!