Ultimate Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe?

ya-what-now?

Hey all, I'm cooking Carbonara for about 6 people this evening and have been consulting various recipes! I bought the ingredients yesterday - I'm using smoked bacon fried with some garlic. Then for the sauce - eggs, single cream, black pepper and parmesan!

Now I'm just wondering everyone seems to have a different method of cooking carbonara, or using less / more ingredients!

Just wondering how would you do it?

foodaholic

real carbonara actually has no cream !! here is one I use . ( one trick I use is always to mix the parmesan and the eggs together before adding to pasta )


Ingredients

* 455 g spaghetti
* 15 ml olive oil
* 8 slices bacon or pancetta diced
* 15 ml olive oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 60 ml dry white wine (optional)
* 4 eggs
* 40 g grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 g salt and black pepper to taste
* 8 g chopped fresh parsley
* 10 g grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook spaghetti pasta until al dente. Drain well. Toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and set aside.
2. Meanwhile in a large skillet, cook chopped bacon until slightly crisp; remove and drain onto paper towels. Reserve 2 tablespoons of bacon fat; add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, and heat in reused large skillet. Add chopped onion, and cook over medium heat until onion is translucent. Add minced garlic, and cook 1 minute more. Add wine if desired; cook one more minute.
3. Return cooked bacon to pan; add cooked and drained spaghetti. Toss to coat and heat through, adding more olive oil if it seems dry or is sticking together. Add beaten eggs and cook, tossing constantly with tongs or large fork until eggs are barely set. Quickly add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, and toss again. Add salt and pepper to taste (remember that bacon and Parmesan are very salty).
4. Serve immediately with chopped parsley sprinkled on top, and extra Parmesan cheese at table.

onlyrocknroll

This is the recipe that works best for me, its pretty much an adapted Jamie Oliver one.
For the sauce use one egg yolk per person, and the same quantities of double cream and Parmesan.
When your bacon (and whatever else your using) and pasta are cooked, toss them together, take them off the hob for just a second or two, and then stir in the sauce so that it coats everything.
Don't let the eggs scramble, thats why you take the pan off the hob first. It should have a sort of silky texture to it.

Any Carbonara I've eaten in Italy has had little to no cream in it, and has a lot of cheese, and Italian chefs that I've read always beat the drum that an authentic one should have no cream. I do agree that these big bowls of cream and pasta get sold under the name 'Carbonara' in Irish restaurants are pretty awful, some of them don't even have eggs!

The Silver Spoon cook book is a pretty good authority, and from memory their recipe (for 4) for the sauce is 2 whole eggs and 50g of Parmesan and no cream at all. This is added in at the end as in the above recipe, then another 50g of Parmesan is stirred in. Although this one is obviously more authentic, I've had better results with the Jamie Oliver one above.

Good luck with it.

Dinkie

I make a slightly different version (in an effort to be healthier).

Cook pasta and fry bacon.

In a cup mix 2 tablespoons low fat creme fraiche, 1 egg, salt and pepper.

Drain pasta and put back on heat.

Add bacon and creme fraiche mix

Add grated parmeasan and stir until melted

I love the fact that by using creme fraiche it is a bit healthier, and as I always have creme fraiche in the fridge (and never cream) it is a store cupboard recipe).

emc2

I make a simple but lovely version of this, an Italian friend gave me the recipe.


1.5 to 2 egg yokes per person
lots of Parmesan (maybe 30g per person)
cream
Salt and Pepper
peas
Bacon
Pasta


Cook pasta as normal with 5 minutes remaining on the cooking add in the pea to the pasta water (or cook in a seperate pot if you like).
Dice the bacon and fry.
In a big bowl add the egg yokes and parmesan along with lots of black pepper. This should look like a paste and add a bit of cream to thin out.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain quickly and add to the bowl with parmesan and egg yokes. Stir quickly for about 2 to 3 minutes and this cooks the egg and ensure that the pasta is well coated. Finally stir in the bacon and serve with a little bit of Parmesan on top.

olaola

NYOMS! I think I'll do this tonight

longshanks

i tend to use rick steins recipe. just be careful that when you add the egg it doesn't end up as scrambled egg

hussey

Here is a video lesson from a great chef in sydney
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/154/spaghetti-carbonara

olaola

I did this last night - turned out great.
I dry fried bacon with garlic. Cooked the spagetti.
Meanwhile, mixed two egg yolks with a load of parmesean and about a tablespoon of HF creme fraiche.
Drained spagetti, took off the heat and threw everything in.

Yum!

Could have done with some fresh parsley, but it was pretty tasty!

Fanny Cradock

longshanks wrote: »

i tend to use rick steins recipe. just be careful that when you add the egg it doesn't end up as scrambled egg

I tried this recipe yesterday with the addition of onion, button mushrooms, courgette and basil (minus the cheese and parsley as I had none to hand). Excellent stuff! I think I'll not be using cream again.

Just to reiterate, it is important to take the pan off the heat before adding the eggs. I would suggest cracking the eggs and beating them after you have taken the pan from the heat to give it time to cool down a bit. Pour the beaten eggs around the pasta (don't just dump it all in the centre) and stir until coated, making sure to not let the eggs sit in any deep piles of pasta because the residual temperature will scramble the eggs. Tongs are really handy for this stage.

arknine

I know that this might be an old thread but I thought it might be an idea to share what I think is the trick to the ultimate carbonara recipe.

What I learnt is when preparing the egg yolks that you keep adding parmesan cheese and beating the cheese in until the fork can actually stand in the cheesy egg mixture.

It involves using a lot more parmesan cheese than you ever thought you would add before, but try it.

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