Spaghetti all carbonara is an incredibly delicious, classic Italian dish.
It’s very easy to make and you can whip some pasta carbonara up in less than 30 minutes.
You only need a few ingredients for the spaghetti carbonara recipe, but they’d need to be specific. Italians are very proud of their culinary history and that’s for a good reason!
Unfortunately, many Italian ingredients are difficult to find in certain areas outside Italy.
In order to prepare a tasty Italian dish, you’d have to compromise and replace some of them with their nearest equivalents.
That being said, in this dish you could replace the famous guanciale with some pancetta (bacon made from pork belly meat). The fattest one you can find!
Pecorino Romano shouldn’t be difficult to find, but just in case, you could replace it with Parmesan cheese.
There’s a big difference between the two: Pecorino is made with sheep milk, while Parmesan is made with cow milk.
They don’t taste the same, but in order to try out this recipe, it’s worth replacing the original ingredient with the next best thing.
Spaghetti carbonara is also prepared using fat that forms from the guanciale while cooking, and not olive oil.
Alternatively, you could add some fat (namely lard) in order to fry the pancetta (since pancetta isn’t as fatty fat fat as the guanciale).
And if you don’t have lard in your kitchen either, then go ahead and use a tablespoon of oil.
Here’s how to make spaghetti carbonara:
| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
people
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- 7 ounce spaghetti (200 gr.)
- 7 ounce guanciale (200 gr. - guanciale is pork cheeks, if you can't find any, replace with pancetta)
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 ounce Pecorino Romano cheese (50 gr. - if you can't find any, replace with Parmsan cheese)
- salt & pepper
Ingredients
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- In a large pot, bring salted water to boil (about 8 cups of water should suffice).
- Meanwhile, prepare your ingredients: slice the guanciale (or pancetta) into thin slices, separate the yolks from the whites (we don't need the whites, so set them aside), grate your cheese.
- When the water begins to bubble, toss in your spaghetti.
- Meanwhile, in a large skillet or wok, fry the guanciale for a few minutes.
- After few minutes, your spaghetti should be "al dente" (that means almost ready), so you can go ahead and toss them into the wok, over the meat.
- Let the cook for a couple of minutes, while you mix the egg yolks with the grated cheese. Add 2-3 tablespoons of cooking water (from your spaghetti water) in order to make them more creamy.
Leave some cheese aside, for serving.
- After a couple minutes, take the spaghetti off the stove and add the egg mixture on top.
- Mix everything carefully.
- Serve with grated cheese on top and a pinch of pepper.
