The warm aroma of cinnamon and tantalizing undertones of sautéed garlic will perfume your house for hours after cooking this dish.

Carbonara is one of those fatty, delicious preparations of pasta that most people love. What could be better than a rich, unctuous sauce that contains garlic, Parmesan, and cracked black pepper that is studded with bacon? Rustico‘s Steve Mannino was kind enough to share his approach to carbonara and how he applies it to Israeli couscous. The results are fantastic. Read on for the full instructions.

For a long time, couscous was a food that I had a hard time liking. The times that I have had the granular bits of semolina, I’ve always found it dry, with a texture that made me think it must be what furniture stuffing tastes like. But a few weeks ago at Vices of Virginia, a fundraiser for the new Arcadia Center, I tried a pearled couscous carbonara dish from Chef Steve Mannino of Rustico that bowled me over.