One of the 4 classic pasta dishes of Rome! This authentic recipe utilizes the correct ingredients to make this simple, yet delicious dish. If "carbonara" contains milk, cream, peas, garlic, or oil (or anything not in this recipe), it is not authentic!
Chef's notes
The quantity of the ingredients can be adjusted to your preference.
If guanciale is too difficult to find in your area, you can substitute with pancetta.
I make the dish slightly different from what others may do, when it comes to incorporating the pasta water and cooked guanciale, but the result is the same.
Details
⏲️ Prep time: 15 min
🍳 Cook time: 20 min
🍽️ Servings: 2
Ingredients
150-200g pasta (rigatoni or spaghetti)
5 large egg yolks
80-90g guanciale
30g grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Directions
Start boiling a pot of water for your pasta
Cut the guanciale into thin pieces about 1cm thick
Brown the guanciale pieces in a pan for about 10 minutes on a medium flame
While the guanciale is cooking and the water is heating, crack your eggs and separate out the yolks into a bowl
Add the grated cheese to the egg yolks and mix together, add the black pepper and mix until uniform and creamy
Salt the boiling water and add the pasta, cook to "al dente" as per the box directions (I usually subtract a couple minutes from what the box says)
Once the guanciale is browned, turn off the flame and let the pan sit and cool down
After the pasta has been cooking for 5ish minutes, scoop a small amount into a glass and let it cool down
Once the pasta is cooked, strain it and add to the guanciale pan and mix the pasta, guanciale and its oil all together
Add a small amount of the cooled pasta water to the egg and cheese mixture and mix to render it less thick
Pour the egg and cheese mixture into the pasta and mix
Optionally sprinkle grated Pecorino Romano on top of pasta and serve
