Pasta Carbonara Recipe

This is my favorite way to make incredible Carbonara at home! Instead of cream, our recipes are made with real ingredients and rely on marinated pork, eggs, cheese and starchy pasta water to make our smooth Carbonara sauce. You will love this!

Every time I make pasta Carbonara, I fall in love again. This is a creamy classic pasta dish with a short list of ingredients that takes about 15 minutes and takes you to Creamy Pasta Paradise. We lean towards the classic Carbonara principle of this recipe, which means no cream.

Why is such a good egg? The real secret to the eggs. You will mix the eggs and yolks with cheese, marinated pork (such as bacon, guacia or bacon) and starchy pasta water. The combination turns into a rich and silky sauce, but you don’t feel that you’re that heavy. The great Carbonara is actually easy and I shared everything you need to know to do it below! For more pasta recipes, see our Italian meatballs with the best sauces, Weeknight pasta, grilled Ziti and brown butter pasta with eggs.

Key Ingredients

• pork: You want a marinated fatty pork like Guanciale (most traditional), bacon (Pancetta) or thickly cut bacon (easiest to find). We will render it in a skillet to add flavor to our dishes and since you will have some fat, we will make our sauce more buttery after mixing the sauce with eggs and cheese.
• pasta: Use your favorite long spaghetti. My first choice is spaghetti, but the Bucatini looks like spaghetti with a hole in the middle and is also lovely. Carbonara made with homemade pasta is amazing if you want!
• Room temperature eggs: Carbonara has no cream. Instead, we mixed the eggs and yolks with the presented fat and some starchy pasta water to make the sauce smooth and creamy. The eggs will heat up, but may not reach the temperature that will make them fully cooked (similar to when making homemade tiramisu). We are looking for a creamy, emulsified sauce instead of a fully cooked scrambled egg texture. If you are concerned about raw eggs, use pasteurized eggs (common in most grocery stores). If you are still worried, try Pettuccine Alfredo, which has no eggs and uses butter and cheese for the sauce. Note: If your eggs are added directly from the refrigerator to a bowl of warm water, then add them to a bowl of warm water and add them for a few minutes.
• cheese: I used Parmigiano-Reggiano, but Pecorino-Romano was great in this dish. Some recipes are half made, which is also lovely. For best results, use a fine grater to grate the cheese and skip the pre-grained Parmesan because it won’t melt into a silky Carbonara sauce.
• Salt and black pepper: For seasoned pasta you want to season pasta water, which will season the pasta itself, and since we use some starchy water to bring the sauce together, it will also season the sauce. Fresh black pepper is common in Carbonara, for good reason. Its spice hints really cut into the sauce. For this, I prefer fresh black pepper.

How to make Carbonara

First, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. If using dry pasta, add it to boiling water immediately. Note that fresh or homemade pasta cooks faster, so if you are using fresh pasta, wait to add it to the water until the pork is almost done.

You can render the pork (bacon, guaciar or bacon) when the pasta is cooked (or while waiting to add fresh pasta). Add the pork to a skillet with a small amount of olive oil and cook over medium-low heat. The pork should hiss gently and not brown too quickly. Cook until the fat is presented and the pork is still a bit chewy in the center (not crunchy/crunchy).

If your pork is presented before the pasta is ready, simply turn the heat off and set aside. When the pasta is just finished, heat the pork and its fat on a low heat.

Now prepare the bowl you will use for the sauce. A warm bowl helps the sauce emulsify correctly. Fill the meal or mixing bowl with hot water and let it sit on the side.

Once the pasta is ready, save 3/4 cup of pasta water for later. Then, drain the pasta and throw it into the skillet with the rendered pork and fat. Try about 1 minute.

Now, for Carbonara sauce! Remember that bowl has hot water? Pour out the hot water and thoroughly dry the bowl with a clean kitchen towel. Add the cooked pasta to the pork and fat and add it to a warm and dry bowl.

Quickly stir the egg and cheese mixture and throw away constantly to combine. The remaining heat from the pasta and bowl will help the sauce smooth and fit tightly on the pasta. If it is too thick, add the reserved pasta water, a tablespoon at a time, and continue to tossing until you reach the desired consistency.

As a final step, I like to taste it and then adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper (usually not having to do a lot of things). Then, serve immediately to warm it up, top with freshly ground Parmesan cheese. good!