Pasta Carbonara is an easy, luscious pasta dish. It comes together quickly and it has only five ingredients, bacon, spaghetti, eggs, Romano cheese and pepper. I always have these things on hand. Doesn't everyone have a pound of bacon sitting in their refrigerator?
The key to making great pasta carbonara is to have everything ready. All the instructions are below. Follow them, and I promise you will have a dinner everyone will love tonight. All the people in my family love pasta carbonara. It is easy and quick. What more can you ask for?
How to Make Pasta Carbonara
1. Get a large pot of water boiling on the stove. Water will boil faster if you put the lid on. When you see steam escaping from underneath the lid, you know the water is ready. While you are waiting for the water to boil, cook the bacon and get the eggs ready.
2. Cook the bacon. For pasta carbonara, you want little pieces of bacon. There are several ways to do this.
For this dish, my favorite way to cook the bacon is to cut across the strips of bacon so you have very small pieces. I put all these pieces in a hot frying pan. It takes about 15 minutes to cook the bacon stirring occasionally. Cooking bacon this way renders a lot of fat, which I like. I can drain off the grease and control how much of it I use on my pasta.
Be careful you have purchased a pound of bacon. So many manufacturers are only putting 12 ounces in a package. I love bacon, so I always want a full pound when making pasta carbonara.
3. Salt the boiling water and put the pasta in the water. Use a spoon to stir the pasta until it sinks in the water. You want it to fall below the water line. Set the timer so you do not forget the pasta. I actually like my pasta a little softer then what the package suggests. I always add 2 minutes to what the instructions say. Often I turn off the heat and leave the pasta in the hot water while I am getting everything else ready.
4. While the pasta and bacon are cooking beat the eggs and add the grated Romano cheese in a small bowl.
5. At this point, fill a larger bowl with very hot water. This bowl will be used to mix everything together. The hot water is heating up the bowl. You will dump the water out before mixing all the ingredients together in it.
6. When the pasta is done and the bacon is brown and crispy you are ready to put everything together. The eggs will cook and make a wonderful, creamy sauce from the heat from the pasta and the bacon. It is very important the pasta and bacon are hot when you start putting this dish together.
7. Before draining the pasta, mix a little of the hot water with the eggs and Romano cheese. The water will temper the eggs and keep them from cooking too fast and turning into scrambled eggs when you add them to the bacon and pasta.
8. Dump the hot water out of the large bowl. Drain the pasta and add to this warm bowl. Add the hot bacon and then pour the warm eggs and cheese over everything. Working quickly use tongs to mix everything well. At this point, add some hot bacon grease to the pasta. Keep tossing until the eggs are creamy and cooked. Use fresh ground pepper to garnish the pasta with a little sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Serve and watch your family fall in love with pasta carbonara.
Let me know on Instagram or Pinterest if you make this.
Post a picture and tag me @dinasdiner. I want to know how it turns out.
Pasta Carbonara
1 pound Bacon
1 pound Spaghetti
4 eggs
1 cup Romano Cheese
1/2 cup of Pasta Water
Fresh Ground Pepper
1. Boil 4 quarts of water. Once boiling, add pasta and cook for 12 minutes.
2. Cut the bacon into small pieces and cook in a frying pan until brown and crispy.
3. Beat eggs and add Romano cheese.
4. Get a large bowl and fill it with very hot water. You will dump out the water before using this bowl. You need it to be warm when you mix everything together.
5. Pour 1/2 cup of pasta water in the bowl with the eggs and cheese to temper the eggs.
6. Drain the hot water from the large bowl. Add drained, hot pasta, hot bacon and pour warm eggs and cheese on top.
7. Use tongs to mix everything together. Add 1/2 cup of hot bacon grease to the mixture to bring it all together.
8. Garnish with fresh ground pepper and Romano cheese.
The ground pepper is part of a traditional pasta carbonara. Carbonara means carbon in Italian. Carbon is black and the pepper represents the carbon. Personally, I do not like the pepper in this dish, so I leave it out.
