Pasta Carbonara
Roman spaghetti in a sauce of egg, cured pork and parmesan, thickened by the heat of the pasta alone — no cream anywhere near it, ever.
About this dish
Carbonara has almost nothing to do with the cream, garlic and mushrooms it's frequently drowned in outside Italy — the real dish is just four things: pasta, cured pork, egg and cheese, and the sauce is nothing but egg emulsified by residual heat and starchy pasta water. Its name most likely comes from carbonari, Italian charcoal workers, though nobody can prove the dish is actually theirs; what is certain is that adding cream is not a variation but a different, easier dish wearing carbonara's name, invented because emulsifying egg without scrambling it is the one step in this recipe that actually takes a little nerve.
- Not vegetarian because of Pancetta
- Contains gluten because of Spaghetti
- Contains dairy because of Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
Ingredients
- 400gSpaghetti
- 10gFine sea salt
- 150gPancetta
- 4largeEggs
- 100gParmigiano Reggiano, grated
- 4gGround black pepper
Instructions
Cook the spaghetti in well-salted boiling water until al dente.
10 minTip: Salt the water like the sea, not lightly — pasta only gets seasoned from the inside during this step, and carbonara has no sauce simmering afterward to fix bland pasta later.
While the pasta cooks, fry the pancetta in its own fat until crisp.
8 minTip: No extra oil in the pan — pancetta renders plenty of its own fat, and that fat, not butter or olive oil, is what the sauce is built on.
Whisk the eggs with the grated parmesan and a generous amount of black pepper.
3 minTip: Use whole eggs plus a couple of extra yolks if you want it richer, but keep at least some whites in — all yolks make a heavier sauce than the classic actually calls for.
Off the heat, toss the drained pasta with the pancetta and its fat, then with the egg mixture, adding a splash of the reserved pasta water until glossy.
2 minTip: This has to happen with the pan off the direct flame — the residual heat of the pasta is exactly enough to turn the egg into a sauce, and any more turns it into scrambled egg spaghetti instead.