We've made a few tweaks to our spaghetti carbonara by swapping the classic meats out with bacon as it's readily available in most grocery stores. But the main star of this recipe, in my opinion, is the creamy sauce that pulls together all the ingredients beautifully.
1cupfreshly grated Parmesan cheeseor romano cheese, plus more for topping
fresh chopped parsleyoptional as garnish
Instructions
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook spaghetti to desired tenderness. Reserve two cups of the pasta water and drain pasta the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat. Remove from pan when crisp and crumble. Set aside. Do not clean skillet.
In the bacon grease left in the skillet, saute garlic until golden. Transfer garlic and one tablespoon of the bacon grease to a medium mixing bowl.
Add eggs, 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper, and 1 cup of finely grated cheese to the mixing bowl. Whisk to combine.
In large skillet or serving bowl, combine hot pasta, hot pasta water, and the egg/cheese mixture. Toss well. Allow pasta to set for about 5 minutes as the starches in the pasta help to thicken the sauce. The heat from the pasta and pasta water is enough to melt the cheese and “cook” the eggs without scrambling them
Stir in bacon and top with freshly chopped parsley. Serve.
Notes
Feel free to use pecorino romano, parmesan cheese, or even a mixture of the two.
You can use pancetta or bacon for this recipe (traditionally made with pancetta or guanciale, though the latter is difficult to find around here). You can cook the bacon either whole and then crumble or chop it into pieces and cook it already diced. For a super fast dinner, use pre-cooked bacon. Pre-cooked bacon still needs a bit of cooking to crisp it up and it will release enough fat to have that flavorful tablespoon or so for cooking the garlic and adding flavor to the sauce.
*You do not add heat to the dish once you’ve stirred in the egg mixture - don’t cook it or you will end up with scrambled eggs.* The heat from the pasta and pasta water is enough to melt the cheese and “cook” the eggs without scrambling them.
You can adjust the amount of pasta water for less sauce. If you want more sauce, I would recommend increasing the number of eggs and amount of cheese.
This recipe uses two cups of pasta water - you can start with 1 cup and increase from there to find the perfect amount of sauce.
Once cooled, store leftovers in an air-tight container kept in the refrigerator for 3 days. Reheat in the microwave with a damp paper towel over the top. The longer your pasta sits in the refrigerator, the more it will absorb the sauce. You can add a bit of water to the dish before reheating to help loosen it up, but it may dilute the flavor a bit.