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I’m pretty late to the carbonara game to be honest. I’m not a HUGE pasta fan, I typically avoid it when we go out and opt for something like a steak, but I had my first taste of Pasta Carbonara at the Copper Onion a few years back and it totally changed my mind about eating pasta as an entrée. I’ve tried it elsewhere but can’t find many restaurants that offer a real carbonara (i.e. isn’t made with a knock-off Alfredo sauce) History Lesson: carbonara has a creamy texture to it but is not traditionally made with cream! It’s the combination of egg yolks, melted parmesan, and rendered fat from the pork that gives the sauce its creamy quality. Anyway, after craving a good carbonara for long enough I started looking for a way to make it at home.
Making carbonara can be intimidating because it requires some very specific steps in order to get it right, but once you get it down you’ll realize how simple it really is. This recipe is great, it’s very basic and provides a relatively easy process to get that creamy, restaurant quality carbonara without too much of a hassle. You can use any string pasta that you like; spaghetti is the norm, but many people use fettuccine or linguine for their ability to hold the sauce. I also have to confess that this isn’t my recipe, I swiped it from The New York Times but tried to reword everything in order to make it easier to understand (the first time I cooked this dish the preparation steps got convoluted and I ended up with a total mess). I also noted some adjustments that I made to the ingredients, hope you enjoy this one!
Pasta Carbonara
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 2 large eggs, and 2 large egg yolks at room temperature.
- 1 oz finely grated Parmesan, plus 1/2-1 more ounce for serving.
- 1 oz finely grated Pecorino Romano (I honestly can never find Pecorino, so just double up your Parmesan if you don’t want to go cheese hunting).
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil.
- 3-4 oz Pancetta or Thick Cut Bacon cut into long cubes (I actually used about 6.5oz in this one and it still felt a little light, maybe consider going 7-8oz if you’re a bacon fan. I personally like Pancetta but it can be hard to find on short notice, so nine times out of ten I use Bacon. The NYT article calls for Guanciale but thick cut bacon is literally the same thing, so you do you)
- 12 oz of string pasta (I use linguine)
- Salt to taste
- Coarsely ground Black Pepper to taste
Preparation
Step 1
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks, and grated cheese. Season with a pinch of salt and generous Black Pepper. Set aside. You can add green peas if you like, if you do just make sure they’re room temperature. Hot peas will cook the eggs! I’m personally not a fan so I leave them very, very far away from this dish.
The eggs and cheese should have a somewhat thick consistency once whipped, note the VERY generous pepper
Step 2
Place a large pot of moderately salted water over high heat to bring to a boil. Be sure to boil about twice as much water as you need to cook the pasta (you’ll see why in Step 4).
Step 3
While the water is coming to a boil, heat the Olive Oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Make sure your pork is cut into long cubes, if you’re using thick cut bacon I just dice it to about 1/2 by 1/4 inch. Place the pork into the skillet and cook until the fat renders. Just before it’s crispy, but not hard, remove skillet from heat and set aside.
Perfect, almost-crispy bacon. Don’t drain the fat!
Step 4
Once the water is boiling, fill a separate mixing bowl with the excess water and set it aside (this is to keep the bowl hot to help with the mixing process in Step 5). Place the pasta in the boiling water and cook until it’s just a bit firmer than al dente. Just before the pasta is done, reheat the skillet with your pork over low heat. Reserve about a cup of pasta water, and then drain the pasta. Add the pasta into the skillet with the pork and stir over low heat for about a minute or until the pasta is well coated with the rendered fat.
Step 5
This is where you have to act quickly! Drain the hot water from the mixing bowl from Step 4, dry the bowl with a towel and then add the pasta & pork from the skillet. Quickly stir in the whipped eggs and cheese and continue stirring until the cheese melts and the eggs begin to cook very slowly, it should form a light and creamy sauce over the pasta and gradually lose that yellow color from the egg yolk. Splash in some of the reserved pasta water in very small amounts until it reaches the desired consistency, I usually need to add about 3-4 quick splashes until it’s just right. Serve immediately and top with more cheese and cracked pepper. (Important Note: do not try to do this step in the skillet, even if you think it cooled off enough. I’ve made that mistake before, the eggs will cook too fast and you’ll end up with a pasta omelette!)
Buon Appetito!
