INGREDIENTS

  • 14 ounces guanciale lardons (or pancetta or thick-cut smoked bacon)
  • 1 pound dried spaghetti (or bucatini, rigatoni or linguine)
  • 3 cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (or Pecorino Romano, Grana Padano or a combination of Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano-Reggiano)
  • 3 tablespoons freshly grated Pecorino Romano
  • 4 egg yolks, room temperature (you can experiment with this a bit as I’ve noted above – some like to use 2 whole eggs, egg whites included, instead)
  • Freshly ground black pepper

GUIDE / INSTRUCTIONS

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara Recipe
  • In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, sear the guanciale (or pancetta or bacon), stirring occasionally, until the fat is rendered and the pork is crispy, about 6 to 8 minutes. Reserve warm.
  • Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a vigorous boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. Meanwhile, warm a large serving bowl with hot water. Just before the pasta is finished cooking, discard the water in the bowl. Add the guanciale, cheeses and egg yolks to the bowl and whisk to combine. Using tongs, transfer the pasta to the bowl and toss to combine. Add pasta water if needed to smooth out the sauce. Season to taste with pepper and serve immediately.
Noelle’s Tips for Perfect Carbonara
  • Dried pasta works better for this dish. Traditionally, bucatini or rigatoni is used. My family used linguine or spaghetti.
  • It’s an à la minute dish, but you can shorten the prep time by rendering the fat from the guanciale, pancetta or bacon the night before. Make sure the pork is crispy. After you sear off the pork, drain on a paper towel, let fat cool and reserve. If you reserve overnight in the refrigerator, you must make sure that it comes to room temperature before using and whisk with egg yolks, cheese, pepper.
  • The trickiest part of this recipe is learning how to avoid scrambling the eggs. Through my travels, cooking in various Italian restaurants and experimenting at home, I found one way to help reduce the chances of scrambling the eggs is to take some of the pork fat from the pan and whisk just enough fat to coat the room temperature egg yolks. Then add the cheese, freshly ground pepper, the rest of the pork fat and small amount of pasta water (be careful not to add too much pasta water or the eggs will still scramble). Then, you can incorporate egg and cheese mixture into the hot pasta (off the direct heat of the stove).
  • The addition of reserved, hot pasta water at the end is important to get the creamy consistency in the dish.
  • With such a simple dish, each ingredient plays an integral role in this recipe: taste the cheese and cooked pork for level of intensity and saltiness, note the color of egg yolks for richness and grind black pepper with a pepper mill.
  • When you think the dish is ready to serve, taste it – of course – and add a touch more black pepper. You should be able to taste the pepper in this dish. What better marriage than pasta and cheese with bacon and eggs?!

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This Spaghetti Alla Carbonara Recipe is traditional Italian dish.

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