Simple Carbonara Pasta Recipe
Creamy and delicious spaghetti carbonara with bacon chunks, enriches with eggs, grated parmesan cheese, topped with a deliciously crunchy pangritata and crushed black pepper.
Equipment
- Sauté pan
- Stock pot
- Tongs
- Grater
- Whisk
- Bowl
Ingredients
- 300 gm bacon
- 300 gm spaghetti
- 1 cup pasta cooking water
- 3 egg yolks
- 75 gm pamersan cheese
- 1 tsp crushed black pepper
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Salt to taste
To finish -
- More parmesane cheese
- Lemon zest
- Crushed black pepper
Pangritata -
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tbsp bacon fat/drippings
Instructions
- We start by cooking the spaghetti as per the pack instructions. My pasta took 9 minutes to cook until al dente.
- When this is cooking cut up the bacon and place it on a sauté pan, cook on low to medium heat for 6-8 minutes until most of the fat is rendered (don’t throw away the fat we need it).
- While this is happening in a bowl add the egg yolks, crushed black pepper, parmesan cheese and whisk until smooth.
- Once the pasta is done remove from the heat and reserve 1 cup of the cooking water. Drain out the rest.
- Add half of the hot cooking liquid into the egg mixture gradually, whisking constantly.
- Add the cooked spaghetti into the sauce, the bacon and 2 tbsp of the fat, toss together. Adjust the consistency with more cooking liquid if needed, add salt and more crushed pepper if needed and squeeze of lemon juice and transfer to the platter. Top with the pangritata and more cheese.
- To make the pangritata: in the same pan of the bacon add the bread crumbs and dried basil, toast until golden and take off the heat.
Notes
- Gradually temper the egg mixture with the hot pasta liquid or else it will scramble.
- Add as much cooking liquid as needed to achieve a nice creamy saucy consistency.