Today, a traditional recipe: Creamy and Perfect Carbonara.
I confess that, like many of us, I too have eaten carbofrittate many times. Indeed, my mother used to sauté the pasta with beaten eggs over and over in the pan!!!!🤔
Since I started making it with this recipe, my carbonara is always creamy and perfect. Like all traditional preparations, everyone has their own way of making it, but once you try this one, you’ll surely love it.
Carbonara is a traditional Roman dish but known worldwide, often reimagined, so to speak, by adding ingredients that are not part of it or replacing some. There are a few simple rules for making a delicious carbonara, and they are: no pancetta but guanciale, no cream but a pecorino cream (I’ll tell you how to prepare it, and I assure you that you’ll use it often, not just for carbonara), and no onion.
We’ll use eggs, but only the yolks, so remember not to throw away the egg whites; make a wonderful Angel cake to enjoy right after our carbonara, while you can prepare a small appetizer beforehand with rustic ham pie, savory plumcake without eggs, and broccoli muffins.
Traditionalists make it more or less as we will today, but if you want to try an innovative and nonconformist version, I recommend my twisted carbonara.
Now let’s see step by step how to make this recipe together.
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Regional Italian
- Region: Lazio
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for the carbonara
- 12 oz spaghetti
- 1/2 cup pecorino (aged)
- 1/3 cup Parmigiano Reggiano DOP (aged)
- 4 eggs (3 yolks, 1 whole)
- 3 oz guanciale
- 10 black peppercorns
- to taste salt
- 1/3 cup water (pasta cooking water)
Tools
- 1 Scale
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Pan
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Pot
- 1 Knife
Let’s Prepare Creamy Carbonara Together
First, bring the water to a boil for cooking the pasta. Then, let’s take care of the pepper by placing the pan on the stovetop and heating it up a bit, then add the peppercorns to toast and infuse the pan with aroma. It will take two or three minutes. In the meantime, use a cutting board and knife to cut the guanciale into strips. Remove the pepper from the pan and crush it with a mortar, a small mixer, or a meat mallet.
In the hot pepper pan, add the guanciale and lower the heat. Let it render slowly until the fat becomes transparent and the rest is crunchy and golden, then remove it from the pan, draining it, and leave the rendered fat in the pan.
While the guanciale is rendering, let’s prepare the pecorino cream. Grate the pecorino and parmesan, both should be well-aged, add the crushed pepper and a ladle of hot pasta water gradually. Stir with a hand whisk to create a cheese cream. (This is already perfect as it is to dress the pasta)
To the cheese cream obtained, add the eggs, three yolks, and one whole, and stir quickly. Lightly season with salt because the cheeses are already flavorful. The consistency should be semi-liquid; if it turns out too hard, add a little water; if too liquid, add a bit of grated cheese.
When the water boils, salt it and cook the pasta for half the cooking time, then drain the spaghetti into the pan and finish cooking there, adding ladles of cooking water as needed. Once the pasta is cooked, turn off the heat and add the egg and pecorino cream made earlier, then mix to combine.
A Riccia Recommends
If it’s your first time making carbonara, don’t rush; take all the time you need and follow the steps carefully, and you’ll see that it will become your signature dish. Use quality products, especially the eggs, which should be fresh.
