spaghetti carbonara sauce recipes

The carbonara recipe is another fine example of Italian pasta cuisine, simple, yet delicious... my favorite pasta dish at the moment!

It is said that this recipe takes its name after the fact that they used this inexpensive high-energy pasta meal to feed the coal-miners; in italian 'carbone' means coal, and this is where the name comes from, 'carbonara'. More on this history of carbonara sauce here. This recipe uses eggs, cream, cheese and bacon.

The traditional Italian spaghetti carbonara sauce recipe doesn't have cream, but many chefs in the United States use cream in their sauce, so here it is... The traditional recipe follows later on this page.

Ingredients:

16-18oz spaghetti, linguine, or any preferred pasta
half cup heavy or 15% cream
2 eggs, well beaten
half pound bacon, italian pancetta or prosciutto (one of the 3) cut into half-inch dice
3 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped Italian parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (Parmeggiano Reggiano)
Freshly ground black pepper
additionnal Parmesan for serving
IMPORTANT: all the ingredients have to be at room temperature, before you start!

Preparation:

Fill a large pot with cold water and add a tablespoon of salt.
Cover the pot and boil the water under high heat.
Cook spaghetti (or any chosen pasta) as per package instructions (less boiling time for al dente).
In a large skillet or pan, cook the diced bacon slowly over a low heat for 10 minutes or until crisp;
If you have pancetta or prosciutto instead, just saute very slightly.
Remove bacon (pancetta) from pan lay on paper towels, to drain fat.

While the pasta cooks,
Combine the cheese, salt, pepper, cream and olive oil in a skillet and beat with a whisk until well blended.
Cook in the skillet for 2 minutes under medium low setting until cheese is melted (do NOT boil!)
Take the sauce off the heat, incorporate the eggs and mix until well blended,
Drain spaghetti (or chosen pasta), put pasta back in your pasta bowl, pour sauce on top,
toss with the eggs and carbonara sauce, then add the cooked bacon and chopped parsley.

Preparing each individual plate, sprinkle fresh ground pepper and grated parmesan, for a nice presentation.

Serves 4 spaghetti carbonara portions... enjoy!

Here is the way carbonara sauce was originally invented, without cream.
The difficulty here is to keep the eggs from scrambling, so please
be careful as always with this sauce, and follow the instructions.

Ingredients:

Chunk of bacon, or even better, Pancetta cut into little cubes or strips
16 oz spaghetti (or selected pasta)
4 eggs
1 Cup grated Parmiggiano (parmesan) cheese
2 cloves garlic
freshly ground black pepper and salt
red pepper flakes (if desired)
Some extra parmesan cheese for serving
Again, all ingredients have to be at room temperature before you start...

Preparation:

Heat a chunk of butter in a pan and add the pancetta.
Cook until the pancetta's color changes; if youre using bacon, cook until a little crisp,
and then turn down the heat so you dont overcook it,
If this makes too much fat in the pan, drain some off with a spoon.
Press in the garlic once the extra fat is removed, cook for one more minute.

At this point, beat the eggs in a bowl.
Add to the eggs the parmesan cheese and some of the ground black pepper and hot peppers to taste
The cheese in the eggs helps to keep them from scrambling when they meet the hot pasta.
Now you have two separate mixtures ready: pancetta in the pan and egg mixture in the bowl...

Cook the pasta as per package instructions, preferably 'al dente'
Save one cup of hot pasta cooking water for later;
Use tongs to transfer pasta directly from boiling water to the pan with the pancetta (the idea is to keep the pasta hot)
Using a ladle half of the hot pasta water and toss with the pancetta for about a minute, and finish cooking on low heat.
Slowly add the other half of the hot pasta water to the egg/cheese mixture to bring it up to temp, mixing while pouring
(this will help make sure the eggs dont scramble, too).
Take the pan with the pasta and pancetta off the heat and slowly add the egg/cheese mixture, while tossing
adding more cheese as preferred.

Serve immediately, topping each individual spaghetti carbonara plate with grated parmesan cheese, freshly ground pepper, to taste.

Buon appetito! I just love carbonara...

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