How to Make No Cream Carbonara
Spaghetti, pancetta, eggs, parmesan cheese and a splash of starchy pasta cooking water - this easy carbonara is truly delicious.
For this, I've used a combo of recipes from Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo.
Spaghetti carbonara is such an easy and quick-to-cook midweek dinner. The only real time taken is waiting for the pasta. Such a doddle you really can't go wrong.
There's nothing like a good bowl of pasta in whatever form but carbonara is possibly my favourite.
I know here in England we do like to add cream but there really is no need, but anyone from Italy would be horrified at the very thought!
That's probably a bit like me when I see some Americans who insist on serving sweetcorn and call it a traditional English Sunday roast 😕 I love you guys but sweetcorn has no place on an English Sunday roast!
But with that said if you like sweetcorn with your roast dinner, go ahead and do it!
Cooking is after all an experiment and I'm always making up recipes that possibly not everyone agrees with but hey ho. Cook whatever you fancy I say, just go for it!
Traditional Carbonara Ingredients
free-range eggs
freshly grated parmesan cheese
pancetta
dried spaghetti
extra virgin olive oil
Recipe Top Tips!
You can buy ready-sliced pancetta in any good supermarket - usually, it will be with cooked meats rather than in the bacon section.
Of course, if you prefer you can use streaky bacon, but always go for smoked bacon.
Personally, I've never understood why anyone would even buy unsmoked bacon anyway. Ask Jamie Oliver about bacon, he'll agree with me!
One more thing, please avoid at all costs 'quick cook' spaghetti. I bought it by mistake once and it is truly awful, it turns to slush in a matter of minutes.
Start by putting the eggs and the egg yolk into a bowl and gently whisk them together.
Grate in the Parmesan.
Season with black pepper, then mix well and put to one side.
Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente.
In a large frying pan add 1 tablespoon of oil, then place over medium-high heat.
Stir in the pancetta, then cook for about 4 minutes, or until it starts to crisp up.
Drain the spaghetti reserving about a tablespoon of the cooking water.
Add the spaghetti to the frying pan and toss well over the heat so it really soaks up all that lovely flavour.
Now remove the pan from the heat - it's important to do this otherwise your egg mixture will scramble.
Add a splash of the cooking water and toss well, season with pepper, then pour in the egg mixture.
The heat from the pan will help to cook the egg gently, rather than scrambling it, but you can put it back on low heat for a minute.
Mix together again and you're done.
Serve with a grating of Parmesan and an extra twist of pepper.
Yep, it's as simple as that, dinner sorted apart from a nice glass of wine! 😋 Please drink responsibly.
If you really want cream, you might prefer this creamy spaghetti carbonara.
Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below!
Classic Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 large free-range eggs (just the yolk of the 4th egg)
- 50g (a large handful) of freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
- a handful of ready sliced pancetta
- 220 g dried spaghetti
- extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Put 3 eggs plus just the yolk of the 4th egg into a bowl and gently whisk together.
- Finely grate in the parmesan, season with pepper, then mix well and put to one side.
- Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente.
- In a large frying pan add 1 tablespoon of oil, then place over medium-high heat. Stir in the pancetta, then cook for about 4 minutes, or until it starts to crisp up.
- Drain the spaghetti reserving about 4 tablespoons of the cooking water.
- Add the spaghetti to the frying pan and toss well over the heat so it soaks up all that lovely flavour.
- Now remove the pan from the heat - it's important to do this otherwise your egg mixture will scramble.
- Add a splash of the reserved cooking water and toss well. Season with pepper, then pour in the egg mixture. The heat from the pan will help to cook the egg gently, rather than scrambling it. You can pop it back on the heat for a minute or so to gently heat it. Mix again and you're done.
- Serve with a grating of parmesan and an extra twist of pepper.
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Jan