SUZANNE GOIN was searching her stamp-size kitchen for a grater. Up she went on her step stool, sifting through a cabinet filled with spice jars, then across the room, peering deep into a cupboard, digging among bowls. ''I know that I just saw it,'' she said, exasperated.

The situation didn't feel very hopeful, because Ms. Goin doesn't have a potholder, tongs or measuring cups either. In fact, some college students may have more well-equipped kitchens. She has a white enamel vintage stove, a few inches of countertop and a sink.

But it hardly makes a difference, because Ms. Goin has the one tool that matters: resourcefulness. Rather than using a grater, she drew on her all-purpose, though menacingly large chef's knife to slice and chop the cheese from a hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano. She scraped the cheese into a bowl with a few eggs (but no cream!). The foundation of carbonara was now constructed.

''I used to make this with my dad,'' Ms. Goin said, as she sliced apple-wood smoked bacon and pancetta. ''This was a cool dish as a kid because of the transformation -- of how the heat of the pasta cooked the eggs.''

Her adult version has peas and pea shoots, also a play on one of her father's dishes. ''One thing he used to make was spaghetti with peas,'' she said, ''and I can remember being so embarrassed with my friends because they had spaghetti with meatballs and we had spaghetti with peas.'' It seems a minor offense. At least he didn't wear plaid golf pants.

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Plus carbonara is a delightfully simple dish, a recipe that can serve anyone well for a lifetime. All it involves is seasoning pasta with the aromatics of cured pork and onion, then dressing the warm pasta with eggs and cheese. It is not unlike a warm frisée salad with lardons and a poached egg, except that with the pasta, you get a dish that is silky and rich, an entree as opposed to a first course.

Next Ms. Goin heated a sauté pan with olive oil and spread out bits of bacon and pancetta. As they warmed, they sizzled and spit, and their fat melted, filling the base of the pan. To this she added chopped onion and a whiff of garlic, layering the aromatics. Finally, she dropped in fresh peas and a pinch of thyme, fluttering her fingers so that the leaves made their way around the pan.

Meanwhile, the third component -- the orecchiette -- spun and looped inside a pot of boiling water. Ms. Goin scooped out a cupful of the cooking water, to save for loosening the sauce later on.

The only stress-inducing part of this dish is the assembly, because once the pasta is drained, it must be folded together with the sauce and then quickly dashed into the bowl of eggs and cheese. The race is against cooling. It's important to assemble it all while the different parts are warm, she said, ''So when it goes into the eggs there's enough heat to cook the eggs.'' It is best to hang around the pot of pasta as it finishes, then snap to.

Ms. Goin whirled it all together, in a single motion. The orecchiette were soon studded with bits of bacon and peas, then rolled into the creamy egg sauce. In went a handful of pea tendrils and then finally a squeeze of lemon juice.

One pot, one pan and a bowl, and you have a dish a child could make, perhaps minus the peas. Although Ms. Goin, like her father, may not budge on that front. She now realizes the principle behind his efforts. ''I don't try to give people what I think they want,'' Ms. Goin said. ''I cook the food I like to cook.''

''I feel like I'm not going to please everyone, but I feel like my food speaks to a certain kind of person.''


Time: 30 minutes


3 ounces apple-wood smoked bacon, thickly sliced and cut into 1/4-inch cubes

4 ounces pancetta, coarsely chopped so you have 1/4-inch pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

1 1/2 cups peas

2 teaspoons thyme leaves

3 eggs

6 egg yolks

1 3/4 cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1 pound orecchiette

Freshly ground black pepper

20 small pea shoots (or small spinach leaves)

1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley.

1. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. In a large sauté pan, place bacon and pancetta in oil over medium-low heat. Cook until bacon is browned and has rendered most of its fat. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of fat, leaving meat in the pan. Scrape in onion and garlic, and sauté until glassy and translucent, then add peas and thyme. Cook for 1 minute, then turn off heat.

2. In a large mixing bowl, lightly whisk together eggs, egg yolks and cheese.

3. When water comes to a rolling boil, stir in pasta and cook until tender but still a little chewy in the center (like a piece of gum). Ladle out a cup of cooking water, and reserve. Drain pasta, and pour it into sauté pan with bacon; grind coarse pepper over top. Fold pasta into sauce.

4. Tip pasta into egg mixture, and fold it all together quickly, so eggs cook and coat pasta with a velvety sauce. Add pea tendrils (or spinach), and fold once more. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Add a little pasta water if it becomes too thick. Spoon into shallow bowls, and sprinkle with parsley.

Yield: 4 servings.

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