Classic Carbonara Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is traditional carbonara made of? ›

Carbonara is made with guanciale (cured pork), eggs, Pecorino Romano cheese, spaghetti pasta, and lots of black pepper. Italians don't add extra ingredients like cream, milk, garlic, or onions.

Whisk Like You Mean It

You're using more egg yolks than whites here, which is what makes carbonara so rich and luxurious. But there's still two eggs-worth of whites in there. Whisking your eggs so that the whites are completely incorporated into the yolks will give your sauce a more uniform texture.

And indeed, there's plenty of recipes that cheat by adding in cream. But today, we're making spaghetti carbonara properly, the authentic, traditional way. No cream. Just egg, cheese and a splash of starchy pasta cooking water.

What not to put in Spaghetti Carbonara? Don't put garlic, cream, milk or butter. It is not needed. It is fine if you want to make a dish with those ingredients, but if you want to learn how to make this dish correctly, use only pecorino, eggs/egg yolks, black pepper, guanciale, and pasta water.

It's sort of its own thing. Mostly it's salty, rich, peppery, and a bit smokey. It's such a simple recipe that you should taste the individual components; egg yolk, cured pork fat, salt, pepper, Parmigiano cheese.

Because in the traditional recipe there is no garlic, if you add it you will lower quality of a very good food. Why is there no garlic in carbonara? Because it's an Italian dish, not an Italian-American dish, and Italian cooking does not use garlic as heavily as Italian-American cuisine.

The Italian version doesn't use cream or ham. It is made with pancetta (pork belly meat that is salt cured, also referred to as Italian bacon), Parmigiano Reggiano or pecorino romano cheese, eggs, and black pepper—called the basics.

Should carbonara have cream? Typically carbonara sauce is only made of eggs, bacon, parmesan, olive oil, seasoning, and sometimes, vegetables. As for cream, Italians will tell you that is a big no no.

Alfredo is made from butter, parsley, heavy cream and minced garlic, whereas carbonara is made from pecorino romano, eggs, black pepper and guanciale (ingredients seem to vary for the sauces depending on the recipe). In Italy carbonara is made without cream, adding cream to the sauce is an American thing it seems.

What kind of cheese is good in carbonara? ›

Pecorino Romano: This aged sheep's cheese is always traditionally used in the Roman pastas, and its salty, grassy, earthy flavor is absolutely delicious in carbonara. That said, if Pecorino is unavailable at your local grocery store, you can use Parmesan as a non-traditional substitute.

Traditional carbonara sauce is made with whole eggs, not just the yolks. However, some recipes do call for just yolks. In the traditional recipe, the eggs are beaten together with grated Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper, and sometimes a bit of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

There might be light variations in the quantities and preparation steps, but the real Carbonara has only 6 simple ingredients: water, pasta, guanciale, eggs, pecorino, pepe. Here's my recipe! well, the first and only trick is related to the ingredients: always use high quality Guanciale and Pecorino and fresh eggs.

If you want your carbonara to be as authentic as possible, you should be using guanciale, not bacon or pancetta. Guanciale is cured pork cheek. It looks a little like bacon, but isn't smoked, so its flavor leans more towards pancetta. Rich, unctuous and packed with umami, guanciale is what real carbonara is made from.

Just guanciale, black pepper, eggs, and Pecorino. A mixture of Pecorino and Parmigiano Reggiano, and a few drops of extravirgin olive oil to help rebdring the guanciale are allowed. Why don't traditional pastas use cream? The reason is that cream isn't used in Italian pasta dishes is that it can be overpowering.

But let me tell you, the key to a true carbonara is the use of guanciale, not pancetta. You see, guanciale is made from the jowl of the pig, which is a less lean cut of meat compared to the belly. This means it has a higher fat content, giving it a rich and smoky flavor and a softer texture.

Must-have ingredients

that there are only five ingredients: pasta, pork cheek, eggs, cheese and pepper. That's it. A real carbonara does not contain onion, garlic, or cream.

The sauce is made with raw egg yolks and is cooked by using only the heat from the cooked pasta. Some people have concerns about the safety of this dish due to the possibility of egg yolks be contaminated with salmonella. In fact, the hot cooked pasta does fully cook the egg. I hope that this answers your question.

Pancetta comes from the Italian world "pancia" which means belly (pork). Guanciale on the other hand comes from "guancia" which is means cheek (pork). The production of the two meats is also different as they require different spices and maturing periods.