I want to eat pasta carbonara. I need a good recipe.

[ApolloandDaphne]

I am having a notion for carbonara. The delicious creamy, bacony sort you get in an Italian restaurant. I've never made it before. Can anyone give me a foolproof and unctuous recipe? Thanks.

Nigella's from Feast is my go to. It's delicious.

Thank you. I will see if I can access that online.

1 egg plus 3 yolks. About 4 tbsp of cream. Lots of parmesan and some black pepper. Mix it all together and then mix into freshly cooked pasta and crispy bits of bacon.

Just fry up chopped up pancetta until crispy. Boil pasta. Whisk eggs (1 large egg per person makes slightly too much imo) and parmeasan together in a bowl with lots of black pepper. When pasta cooked, drain and put back in hot pan. Add the crispy pancetta and pour over the egg mix (not on the heat).

Whisk until egg mix cooked silky smooth over pasta. If you are a bit slow, or there is lots of sauce, you sometimes need to give the pan a bit of a boost on the hob to cook through.

Honestly, if you use good eggs it's super rich and creamy. You definitely don't need cream.

I came on to give the exact same recipe as @Shurl. Too many recipe books overcomplicate it and add things which would make Italians weep.

We sometimes make it with smoked salmon rather than bacon/pancetta. I KNOW that's not carbonara, but it's a similar ilk, and equally delicious. I leave the parmesan out if using salmon.

Guardian's recipe has never let me down. Imo the secret to an amazing carbonara is in the quality of your component parts so when I'm making it I buy the best ingredients I can afford.

P.s. there is no cream in a carbonara.

Carbonara should not have cream in it!!! Scandal!!

Op, it’s crispy pancetta, eggs yolks, black pepper and spaghetti.

Make sure you turn the heat off the pan before you add the eggs, or they’ll scramble. Basically the heat of the cooked spaghetti warms through the egg yolk to make “creamy” sauce you’re thinking of.

If you want to be a heathen then add a dollop of cream or creme fraiche but it’s not the traditional way

Same as Shurl, with the tiny difference that I flatten a clove of garlic with the back of knife, and have that frying in the pan with the pancetta (remove before pasta goes in)

Dh (Italian chef)
1 whole egg plus 1 yolk for 2, 2 yolks for 3
Fry your pancetta/bacon in butter
Remove from heat
Cook your pasta
Beat your egg with lots of black pepper
Drain your pasta but keep a ladle of the water
Add your pasta to your bacon, chuck your egg mix and pasta water in and quickly mix it, on the heat (but v v quickly or the egg will scramble)

Mind you, If this thread goes the way of so many other MN Italian dishes treads, someone will be along soon to say they put an oxo cube and some Lea & Perrins in 🤣

I'm aware it shouldn't have cream in it but I could swear it is normally very garlicky.

@Geamhradh

Dh (Italian chef) 1 whole egg plus 1 yolk for 2, 2 yolks for 3 Fry your pancetta/bacon in butter Remove from heat Cook your pasta Beat your egg with lots of black pepper Drain your pasta but keep a ladle of the water Add your pasta to your bacon, chuck your egg mix and pasta water in and quickly mix it, on the heat (but v v quickly or the egg will scramble)

This sounds perfect.

Yep you fry squashed garlic cloves off with the meat and then remove.

@TheAwfuITruth

Same as Shurl, with the tiny difference that I flatten a clove of garlic with the back of knife, and have that frying in the pan with the pancetta (remove before pasta goes in)

This. This is why it tastes garlicky when there's no actual garlic pieces.

And no salmon. Pfft. Cream is a debate. I add a tiny amount (and lived in Italy for years so I'm allowed ) but if you get really good eggs and pancetta, you don't need it.

I think I have my recipe now. I will Cooke draw pancetta with garlic and remove before adding to the pasta. I just need to go and get some ingredients now!

I knew about the cream thing, but I thought it always had cheese in it

Carluccio's recipe is the best I've used. (Ignore the strange picture with the egg yolk sitting in the middle!)

www.antonio-carluccio.com/spaghetti_alla_carbonara/

Add lots of chopped parsley at the end

Loads of Gaelic is needed and add tons of parmesan to the beaten eggs

@LazyMareofEastown

Guardian's recipe has never let me down. Imo the secret to an amazing carbonara is in the quality of your component parts so when I'm making it I buy the best ingredients I can afford.

Yep, I second the Felcity Claoke 'perfect' recipe. Soooooooooo good.

you really need guanciale if you can get it

Hope you don't mind me asking OP. Is your husband and Italian chef working in a restaurant abroad, therefore he has customized it for different tastes?
Just curious as in Italy we don't really add a lot of pepper, nor we fry the pancetta in butter. And we add grated cheese to the egg.

The technique you are describing looks spot on.

We always bring back to Italy some guanciale to be used instead of pancetta. And we tend to use pecorino rather than parmesan (but we use don't have it we add grana padano, as we are from the region where it's produced and we prefer it to parmesan).