Extended Family

Chapter 143: Baconeering

Takes place after chapter 22

"Harry, you'd tell me if you killed someone and cut them up into tiny pieces, right?"

Harry looked at Katie with a deeply confused expression.  "Uhm, what?"

Katie giggled.  "I just saw a bunch of little neatly wrapped packages in the ice box and got concerned and wanted to double-check with you."

"First, why would you think I'd kill someone and cut them into tiny pieces," Harry asked, smiling.  "Second, do you really think I'd put the pieces in the ice box with our food?  Third, why did you immediately go towards 'murdered chopped up person' when you saw the packages?"

"You probably would have a good reason," Katie replied with utter faith.  "No, actually, you're right, that's silly of me to think you'd do that.  You take food very seriously and don't cross-contaminate."  Her smile grew at his laugh.  "And blame Lyla.  She's been getting into Muggle crime fiction novels and I've been reading some with her."

"Are they any good?" Harry asked.

"Yeah!  Also makes me glad I know magic so I can defend myself.  So if it's not a body in tiny pieces, what are all the packages?"

"Different kinds of bacon.  Hedwig and I got them from Linette to try all sorts of different ones."

"Oooh, are they good?"

"Some are super good!  Some weren't as good and a few weren't to our liking at all really but I'll still eat them in a sandwich.  Hedwig still prefers streaky and back bacon but she also really likes pancetta.  Oh actually, let me make a dish for us with this other one, the guanciale."

Harry diced the guanciale up into small pieces and cooked it slowly in a pan to render out a lot of the fat.  He boiled noodles and beat some eggs together with pepper and salt and parmesan cheese.  When everything was ready, he put the cooked noodles into the pan and added the egg and cheese mixture and stirred it vigorously off the heat.  The resultant mixing with the gentle heat remaining from the noodles turned the eggs and cheese into a very creamy sauce and the rich, chewy, fatty guanciale added a delicious meatiness to the dish.

"Carbonara," Harry said with a flourish, serving a big bowl of it to Katie.

"Oh my gosh that's amazing," Katie said, eating hungrily.  "Thanks!  Mmm, what kind of bacon is this?"

"Guanciale.  It's the jowl, or cheeks.  Very different from the usual pork belly bacon," Harry said, also eating.

"Hedwig doesn't like it?"

"Not to just chomp on.  Which I also have to agree with her.  It's great in a dish like this though."  He smiled when the window to the flat opened and Hedwig swooped in.  He dished up some of the carbonara and set it on the counter and Hedwig landed.  She barked a greeting and nuzzled them before she joined them in eating.

"Yeah that's fair.  Wouldn't like this in a breakfast normally either I don't think."  Katie continued to eat.  "What other kinds did you not like?"

"The peameal bacon was super weird.  It's like ham rolled in cornmeal," Harry said.  "I like Canadian bacon, but it's not very much like streaky bacon either, and it's a bit different from regular bacon too.  Hedwig wasn't a fan," he added when Hedwig mooned the icebox.  "She really hated the turkey bacon."