Classic Carbonara
We asked food writer and author Elizabeth Minchilli to share her favorite pasta recipe with us, and she chose Carbonara! Learn how to make this classic Roman dish below, and check out our interview with her here!
Classic Carbonara
Ingredients
- 1 pound linguine or pasta of your choice
- 3 thick slices of guanciale
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
- freshly grated pepper
Instructions
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Chop guanciale into small cubes. Heat a pan big enough to hold all the pasta and pour in the olive oil. Add guanciale and let cook until guanciale starts to give up its fat, and get crisp at the edges. (But you want it to stay chewy, not get brown and hard like bacon.) Turn off heat.
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In a large serving bowl put the four egg yolks and 1 egg white. Beat just to break up the yolks. Add the grated cheese and pepper and mix well with fork, creating a creamy ‘sauce.’
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Bring a big pot of salted water to boil. Add pasta and cook until on the hard side of al dente (you will be adding the pasta to the hot guanciale and also letting it sit a bit with the yolk/cheese mixture, so you don’t want to over cook). In the meantime, re-heat the guanciale.
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Drain the pasta, reserve a half cup of the hot pasta water.
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Add drained pasta to the pan with guanciale, stir and make sure you coat the pasta with the contents of the pan.
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Turn off heat, add pasta to the bowl with the yolk/egg mixture. Toss well, add a bit of the reserved water if you think it’s too thick. Cover the bowl with a lid, and let sit for 2 minutes to let the egg set a bit. Take off the lid, stir one more time and serve.
