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Traditional Italian carbonara is classic comfort food at its best. Learn our foolproof techniques for turning a handful of basic ingredients into pure magic.
Why we love this recipe
It doesn’t get much better for comfort food than spaghetti alla carbonara. It’s quick to make from ingredients that are easy to keep in the house. And it’s quite easy once you master a couple of simple techniques. I think of traditional Italian carbonara almost like grown-up mac and cheese that also appeals to the kids. Sometimes it’s just exactly what you want, and there’s no negotiating.
What you’ll need
Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe.
- Start with very fresh eggs. You’ll use two whole eggs and two yolks, saving the two extra whites for another recipe, like meringue cookies or pavlova (or just add them to your next frittata or batch of scrambled eggs).
- Ideally you’ll use a combination of Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses. Pecorino (made with sheep’s milk) is a little bit saltier and tangier, while parmesan is a bit sweeter. A mixture will give you the best characteristics of each and an even richer, more well-rounded final dish. If you only have one or the other on hand, that’s fine, too.
- Guanciale (cured but not smoked pork jowl) is the traditional meat for this dish, but to be honest, I almost always use really good bacon instead. Thick bacon, guanciale, or pancetta will all work nicely. I like bacon’s smoky flavor, but more importantly it’s what I tend to have on hand — and carbonara should be all about convenience and comfort. You can learn more about the differences between bacon, guanciale, and pancetta in the section below.
- A couple of smashed garlic cloves and plenty of freshly ground black pepper are all you need to enhance the flavors.
American bacon vs. guanciale vs. pancetta
Look, you guys. All of these fatty cured pork products are delicious, and they all work just fine in spaghetti alla carbonara. You can choose which one to use. Here’s the deal.
- Guanciale is the most traditional choice. This is pork cheek/jowl and is cured but not smoked. Buy it in slab form (not rolled) for traditional carbonara.
- Pancetta is pork belly just like bacon, but it’s cured without being smoked. Here too, buy in slab form rather than rolled for carbonara.
- If you use American bacon, choose a very thick center-cut of good quality. It’s pork belly, and, as you probably know, is smoked (at least in the United States). I tend to use bacon for our spaghetti alla carbonara, because we usually have it in the house, and carbonara is nothing if not impulse comfort food.
How to make it
Here’s the thing about this recipe. It’s basic and simple, and you’ll totally master it, promise. But it can seem intimidating the first couple of times for two reasons.
- First, it’s important to get the timing right so that all the elements will be hot at the same time.
- Second, you don’t want to scramble the eggs. Our method makes it easy to avoid that common pitfall.
Here’s an overview of what you’ll do to make a cozy batch traditional Italian carbonara. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.
- First you’ll whisk together the eggs, yolks, and cheeses in a very large mixing bowl.
- Cook the pork and remove excess fat. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti. When it’s jsut shy of ready, add a little bit of the pasta cooking water to the pan with the bacon, and then add the pasta and cook for a minute.
- Temper the eggs by whisking in a bit of the pasta water, then add the spaghetti mixture to the bowl and toss to coat.
- If the sauce needs a little extra heat to thicken up just enough (sometimes it does, sometimes it does’t), you’ll hold the bowl over the pot containing the pasta cooking water and continue tossing until the residual heat works its magic. That’s it!
Expert tips and FAQs
I’m not sure why, but some Americans seem to expect cream in a carbonara recipe. There isn’t any. The creamy sauce is produced by the cooking technique and has quite different characteristics from a cream-based preparation.
Make sure to start the pasta water and the bacon in a cold pan at the same time. (Or, if you know your stove takes forever to boil water, start the water first and drop the spaghetti into the pot at the same time you start cooking the bacon.) That way, you’ll have starchy hot pasta water and gorgeous al dente spaghetti at the ready to add to the bacon and eggs.
The hardest part of any traditional Italian carbonara recipe is not accidentally scrambling the eggs. That’s why I recommend two steps that lead to a foolproof technique.
First, temper the eggs by slowly whisking in some of the pasta water to the egg, cheese, and pepper mixture. This helps bring up the temperature of the eggs gradually while emulsifying the fats in the egg and cheese with the starchy water. Tempered eggs are much harder to scramble accidentally.
Second, mix up the final dish in a big bowl, rather than the skillet that’s just come off the heat. I learned this from Daniel Gritzer (no relation, heh) at Serious Eats. Lots of recipes call for pouring the egg mixture into the pan once you’ve taken it off the heat, but I find it’s all tooooooo easy to scramble the eggs with that method.
I try to say yes to this question whenever possible, but here the answer is a clear no. The beauty of this recipe is its magical, silky sauce, which relies on timing. Make traditional Italian carbonara just before serving.
That said, leftovers are delicious, too. They’ll keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for two to three days. Reheat on half power in the microwave, in a double boiler, or over very low heat on the stovetop.
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Traditional Italian Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 whole large eggs plus 2 egg yolks
- 1 ounce (30 grams) freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
- 1 ounce (30 grams) freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 8 ounces (227 grams) guanciale, pancetta, or very thick bacon, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- 1 pound (454 grams) spaghetti
Instructions
- In a very large, heatproof mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and egg yolks, the grated cheese, and the pepper. Set aside.
- Fill a very large pot halfway with water. Add plenty of salt, cover, and bring to a boil. (Proceed to step four at this point, and start cooking the bacon while you wait for the water to boil.) When the water boils, cook the spaghetti one minute less than it says on the package. Do not drain the pasta in the sink — you'll need the cooking water.
- At the same time, add the diced guanciale, pancetta, or bacon and the smashed garlic cloves to a large pan and then set the pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is nicely browned and a lot of the fat has been rendered. If there is a lot of fat in the pan, remove most of it, leaving about two tablespoons.
- With the bacon pan set over low heat, carefully stir in 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. When the pasta is ready, use tongs to transfer it from the pot to the pan. It's fine if some of the cooking water clings to the spaghetti as you transfer it. (Leave the rest of the cooking water in the pasta pot.) Stir the spaghetti to coat with the bacon fat/water emulsion and cook for a minute, then turn off the heat.
- Give the eggs another good whisk, and then slowly whisk in 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water. This helps to temper the eggs, bringing up their temperature slowly so they won't scramble. When the water is incorporated, tip the entire contents of the pan into the bowl with the egg mixture. Use tongs to stir it all up very well, coating all of the spaghetti strands with the sauce.
- At this point, you'll need to use your judgment a little bit. If all of the sauce clings to the pasta like a nice, creamy, gently thickened coating, you're all set. You can plate the pasta and serve. Often this will be the case — the combined heat of all the dish's elements will be enough cook the sauce.
- If the sauce seems thin and watery rather than silky, set the mixing bowl over the pot of steaming pasta water and toss the pasta constantly with the tongs until the heat from the water thickens the sauce. (If the bowl fits over the pot without touching the water, you can rest it on top — otherwise hold it just above the water with one hand while tossing with the other.) When the sauce is silky and clings to the pasta, you're ready to plate.
Notes
- Ideally you'll use a combination of Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses. Pecorino (made with sheep's milk) is a little bit saltier and tangier, while parmesan is a bit sweeter. A mixture will give you the best characteristics of each and an even richer, more well-rounded final dish. If you only have one or the other on hand, that's fine, too.
- Traditional spaghetti alla carbonara uses guanciale, which is cured pork jowl/cheek. Unlike bacon, it's not smoky. It's sold in both rolled and slab form. If you would like to use it for this recipe, buy it in slab form and dice it. You can also use pancetta, which, like bacon, is from the belly of the pig — but unlike bacon, isn't smoked.
- The beauty of this recipe is its magical, silky sauce, which relies on timing. I recommend making carbonara just before serving. If you need to make your meal ahead of time, choose a different recipe.
- That said, leftovers are delicious, too. They'll keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for two to three days. Reheat on half power in the microwave, in a double boiler, or over very low heat on the stovetop.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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