the original and super creamy pasta recipe

The original carbonara pasta recipe is a true institution of traditional Italian cuisine. Here are all the secrets to prepare it flawlessly!

It is one of the most loved, discussed, interpreted and cooked first courses by Italians: we are talking about pasta alla carbonara, a classic of Roman cuisine which combines strong flavors with crunchy and creamy textures. This first course knows many variations, and not only as regards the various interpretations, but also for the traditional recipe. However, in reality, it would seem that it doesn’t exist… In fact, there are those who use bacon, those who use guanciale, those who use onion, who instead claims that long pasta should be used, who still uses the white of the egg and who only the red.

But how is carbonara prepared? Although there are different schools of thought, however, there is no real recipe, and that’s because we don’t know exactly the origin of the dish. What if the Americans had really invented it, preparing a pasta with scrambled egg and bacon? Maybe it’s best not to think about it! However, over the years the techniques they perfected and today we have arrived at what can be considered the perfect carbonara! Follow all our steps and the video recipe.

How to make spaghetti carbonara: the original recipe

Do you want to discover all the secrets to making a fantastic, creamy ea rule of artfollow us in the kitchen: here is the recipe for spaghetti alla carbonara!

Carbonara ingredients

Let’s start from the identikit of this first course: first of all, the ingredients of the carbonara must absolutely be of quality. Get yourself:

• 1 piece of pecorino romano medium seasoned and still soft (90 g will be enough for 4 people)
• piece of quality bacon (you will need to obtain 200 g of cubes)
• 5 eggs (there will be 4 yolks and one whole egg)
• about 95 grams of pasta per person (for a total of 380 g)
• 30 g of grated cheese
• black pepper and salt to taste

And above all, rule number one: forget the canned bacon… and the panna! However, if this preparation intrigues you, we refer you to our carbonara with cream.

Preparation of the carbonara

Now that we’ve laid the foundations down, let’s start with preparation!

1. Boil a pot of water, and when it’s hot, dip the spaghetti. Already for this phase, we anticipate the first secret for a perfect carbonara: salt the water a little! The pecorino and bacon, in fact, will help to give the right flavor to the dish.

2. While the pasta is cooking, cut the bacon into cubes or strips after removing the rind. A advise: instead of throwing it away, put a piece of it in the cooking water with the pasta. Heat a non-stick pan and sauté the bacon without adding any other fat. The secret in this phase is the cut of the meat: don’t do it too thin, but thick enough to make it crunchy on the outside but not dry on the inside! Turn it off once it becomes Crisp.

3. In the meantime, let’s make the sauce. One of the rules for the doses is to add one yolk each (only the yolk, please!) and one whole egg. With this dosage the pasta will be pretty creamy, but if you want lighten it, you can also reduce the amount of eggs.

4. Beat with a fork and add the pecorino and grated cheese, amalgamating well everything until the consistency is nice creamy, even a paste. Don’t worry, the cooking water will then take care of making it liquid. Finish with plenty of pepper, preferably freshly ground.
5. Drain the pasta al dente in the pan, light the heat and toss it with the guanciale and the fat released during cooking, adding a little cooking water to facilitate the release of the starches.

6. Add the egg and pecorino cream to the pasta with the bacon, doing this operation remove from the heat and after waiting a minute, and once the sauce has been added, add the cooking water and stir by sautéing or stirring quickly with a wooden spoon: in this way the egg will not cook, and will not give life to the classic omelette effect.
7. Finish the dish with a sprinkling of cheese and a grind of pepper. The carbonara is finally ready. Enjoy your meal!

What to do with those leftover egg whites? Don’t worry: nothing will go to waste if you take a look at our recipes with egg whites!

What we have just seen is the original carbonara recipe, do you want to see some variations? Who loves the pesce, can try the seafood carbonara, those who don’t like meat, on the other hand, will be very happy with our vegetarian carbonara; finally, if you are looking for one variant with vegetableshere is the zucchini carbonara.

Primo Chef’s secrets for a creamy and perfect carbonara

– The type of pasta: rigatoni, spaghetti, tonnarelli, bucatini alla carbonara… which pasta shape to choose? The rule is… that there are no rules! Some people prefer one pasta longwho instead the short one: the important thing is that you like it, that the pasta is al dente and above all of quality.

– The pillow: as we have anticipated, the cooking of the guanciale is crucial. It is preferred to pancetta due to its more complex and fatter flavour, and is usually cut into strips. If you keep a cut thick enough, you can do it welding bene depriving it of fatmake it nice crunchy outside but keep it moist inside: this way it will be a pleasure for the palate!

– How to manage fat of the pig? Here are three schools of thought. Those who want to lighten the recipe throw it away, but for some traditionalists this is sacrilege! The fat, in fact, is used to create flavor and to sauté the pasta before adding it to the egg and making it Already bella tasty. The third variant? Shade it with a touch of white wine and only then skip the pasta.

– The carbonara sauce: also here you will surely have heard that whoever uses white is in error, but in reality It is not so. Everyone has their own (for example, there are those who put one yolk per person plus a whole egg and those who, conversely, put one egg per person plus one yolk). In general, remember that the egg must not be cooked, nor must it be raw, so the best idea is to season the pasta off the heat in the pan. An alternative is to pasteurize the eggs for a few minutes by placing them in a bowl in contact with the steam of the cooking water, and stirring slowly.
However, there is another possible variant: prepare carbonara with the Thermomix; before turning up your nose, give her one chance!

And if you liked it, here are all the secrets for cooking a perfect pasta alla gricia and for a cacio e pepe flawless; We also leave you all our recipes with eggs for always delicious dishes!

To conclude, a bit of history: do you know the origin of carbonara?

storage

We advise you to consume it immediately but if you really have some left over you can keep it in the fridge in a container for a day. The egg, however, will congeal so we advise you to turn it into a pasta omelette. Freezing is not recommended.

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