Ultimate Pasta Carbonara

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The classic Italian pasta carbonara recipe, tested and perfected! This comforting dish features spaghetti in a creamy sauce with eggs, bacon and two kinds of grated cheese.

Pasta carbonara is a classy meal. But it’s also a pasta dish with humble origins — it’s a crowd-pleaser for good reason. It’s fast, this Italian pasta recipe is made with simple ingredients. And most important, it tastes sooo delicious!

This is what I consider the ultimate recipe for pasta carbonara — perfectly cooked spaghetti (or other long strands of pasta) tangled up in a creamy sauce with bacon and grated cheese. It’s soul-satisfying, and absolutely one of my all-time comfort foods.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Cream in carbonara sauce
• Tip for cooking bacon
• Instructions
• Leftovers
• Variations
• Related recipes

I grew up in an Italian family, but my mom and grandmothers mostly cooked red sauce and meatballs to go with our pasta. It wasn’t until I went to Italy and tasted this phenomenal dish in Rome that I was able to perfect the recipe to a “T”!

My kids have always l-o-v-e-d what they’ve endearingly shortened to “carbonara.” To this day it’s still the most requested dinner on their birthdays.

I even included a version in my cookbook, but I’ve perfected the recipe to show you how to make this restaurant-quality dish at home.

Ingredients in this recipe:

• Dried pasta: You can use your preference of spaghetti, bucatini, fettuccine or linguine. Long strands of pasta noodles are the best for slurping!
• Cheese: Use fresh hunks of Parmesan cheese (or Parmigiano Reggiano) and Pecorino Romano cheeses and grate them fresh for the very best flavor.
• Bacon or pancetta: Look for thick-sliced unsmoked bacon, if possible. You can also use pancetta if you want to be very close to the original. Ask the meat or deli counter to slice it into 1/2-inch thick rounds, then slice it yourself into 1/2-inch cubes.
• Eggs: My recipe uses a higher ratio of large egg yolks to whole eggs (3 to 1), which is true to the authentic Roman-style carbonara.
• Peas: Not at all a traditional ingredient in carbonara, but frozen peas are an add-in option. I started adding peas to pasta carbonara when my kids were little for an extra hit of vegetables and green color.
• Fresh Italian parsley: Sprinkle chopped parsley over the pasta to garnish the dish.

The story of pasta carbonara

One of a few stories from Italian food historians say that “pasta alla carbonara” originated during WWII. With the help of regional Italian cooks, American soldiers based in Rome took familiar staples from home (eggs and bacon) and turned them into a simple pasta sauce.

It’s a classic, satisfying dish that people all over the world enjoy, because when you’re hungry there is nothing better than carbs, fat, protein and cheese!

Cream in carbonara: Yes or no?

The reason carbonara sauce is kind of magical has to do with chemistry. It happens when the heat of the cooking water and hot pasta quickly “cook” the egg mixture. That’s all there is to it!

The egg proteins thicken when you combine hot pasta with raw eggs, transforming into a creamy-textured sauce that coats the noodles.

My recipe stays true to the classic method. It’s rich-tasting and satisfying with egg yolks alone. Heavy cream would make the dish feel a bit too rich, more like an alfredo sauce than a humble carbonara sauce.

Heavy cream in carbonara sauce: This much is true — the authentic recipe for carbonara does not contain heavy cream. I imagine that if you told an Italian to pour cream in a carbonara sauce they would moan dramatically while rolling their eyes. In other words, it’s considered a no-no.

That said, I can see why cream is often used by cooks. Americans like lots of sauce on their pasta (and on food in general), where Italians are a bit more light-handed in that department.

But honestly, people can find carbonara sauce tricky to master. In my opinion, adding cream is a way to get around executing the recipe properly. I hope this recipe will encourage you to give true carbonara sauce a try!

Bacon or pancetta in carbonara

American-style smoked bacon isn’t really a thing in Italy. Cured pork jowl — guanciale — or pancetta is most often used in traditional carbonara recipes. Outside of Italy, it’s become common to use bacon which is more readily available.

Pro tip: Bake your bacon!

I learned how to cook bacon in the oven when I worked in restaurant kitchens, and I never looked back.

It’s so much easier and way less messy. Here’s how:

• Lay the strips in one layer on a baking sheet
• Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, flipping the slices halfway through.
• Drain on paper towels, then chop into pieces.

When I don’t have any bacon or pancetta, I also love to top pasta carbonara with crumbled pieces of crunchy, crisp prosciutto!

If you’d like to use pancetta instead of bacon, bake 1/2-inch cubes 5-8 minutes at 400 degrees until they’re crisp.

How to make spaghetti carbonara:

1. Boil water in a 4-5 quart large pot and salt the water generously — this helps season the pasta from the inside out.
2. Cook and stir your spaghetti, bucatini or linguine until it’s al dente. Check the timing on the package and taste-test. Scoop out and reserve some of the starchy cooking water before draining
3. Whisk 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water into the beaten egg and cheese mixture. This tempers the eggs so they’re less likely to curdle.
4. Immediately add the hot pasta to the eggs and toss quickly and thoroughly. Sprinkle the chopped bacon and parsley over and toss again.
5. Serve it up hot, with more cheese!

What if carbonara sauce curdles?

There’s always a chance the eggs in your sauce will “cook” too much, and almost look like bits of scrambled eggs.

First of all, don’t worry! What causes it is the heat of the piping-hot pasta coming into contact with the eggs without enough room for it to steam. Your carbonara will still taste great, but try these steps to master the technique:

• Whisk the hot pasta water into the eggs just before adding the pasta.
• Mix the sauce and pasta in a large shallow bowl (as opposed to a deep mixing bowl) so that the heat doesn’t concentrate at the bottom of the bowl.
• Toss the egg mixture and pasta quickly and repeatedly until all the strands are coated.

What to do with leftover pasta carbonara

• It’s a must that you serve pasta carbonara as soon as it’s done — perfectly cooked, hot pasta waits for no one!
• For the same reason, pasta carbonara does not reheat well. Once it cools, the pasta soaks up all the egg sauce and the delectable creamy texture will be absorbed. It still tastes good, though.
• If you DO have any leftover pasta carbonara, make this brilliant recipe for Pasta Frittata that uses leftover spaghetti.

Get creative with these variations:

Here are some ideas to jazz up the basic recipe for carbonara sauce:

• Add a small grated garlic clove and a pinch of crushed red pepper to the eggs.
• Toss a tablespoon or two of soft butter to the pasta (it’s not traditional but very delicious).
• Throw in 2 cups frozen peas to the pasta during the last 2 minutes of cooking.

More pasta recipes to bookmark:

• Wild Mushroom Pasta
• Bowtie Pasta with Sausage and Broccolini
• Pappardelle al Limone
• Creamy Lemon Cacio e Pepe

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