Homemade carbonara pasta with cream. How to make pasta carbonara at home

  • 18.04.2024

Carbonara with cream and bacon is our family's favorite Italian dish. This is spaghetti with a delicate sauce of yolks and parmesan with pepper with the addition of guanciale (these are dry-cured pork cheeks). They are often replaced with pancetta, a type of bacon. Therefore, if you find them in the supermarket, be sure to buy them so that the classic carbonara pasta recipe with cream turns out just like in Italy.

But let me not confuse you with the meat ingredients for carbonara, just buy regular bacon or unsmoked pork belly, which are available in every supermarket. In the traditional carbonara pasta recipe, cream and garlic are not added, but they make the pasta even tastier. So be sure to try this option, you won’t regret it.

Ingredients:

  • spaghetti – 200 g;
  • bacon, guanciale or pancetta – 150 g;
  • eggs – 3 pcs.;
  • cream 15-20% fat - 150 ml;
  • parmesan or other cheese – 50 g;
  • olive oil – 3 tbsp. l.;
  • garlic – 1-2 medium cloves;
  • salt - to taste;
  • a mixture of peppers (red, black, green) - to taste;

How to make carbonara with cream and bacon:

Boil 2 liters of purified water in a saucepan. Add coarse salt and a few drops of refined oil. Boil the spaghetti according to the instructions until al dente.

Peel the garlic and chop finely.

Heat all the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and pour the garlic into it. Fry it for a minute. Garlic makes pasta carbonara with bacon and cream especially flavorful.

Cut the bacon into thin strips. Place it in the pan with the garlic.

Stirring, we will fry it until browned, as required by the recipe for spaghetti carbonara with bacon.

Place the finished bacon in a separate dry bowl.

For the sauce, separate three chicken yolks from the whites.

Let's add cream to them.

Add salt and season the yolks with cream with a mixture of red, green and black peppers so that the spaghetti carbonara with cream and bacon is moderately spicy.

Let's grate the cheese. Parmesan is usually added to the recipe for pasta with carbonara sauce, but it can be replaced with other hard cheese. Add cheese to the sauce.

Mix thoroughly with a whisk until the yolks dissolve in the cream.

Add water to the spaghetti. Place them in the bowl in which the bacon was fried. Pour the sauce over the spaghetti, stir and heat everything together for one or two minutes.

Then add the fried bacon and mix again.

Carbonara is the great Italian pasta. It is prepared from ordinary products - eggs, bacon, cheese and, in fact, spaghetti itself. Only for many cooks and even chefs, the sauce treacherously settles to the bottom of the plate. I'll show you how to properly combine sauce with pasta. With this carbonara recipe you will always succeed!

Gourmets often argue which carbonara recipe is authentic. Some insist that there must be cream in the sauce, others consider this blasphemy. The confusion begins with the pedigree: historians still have not decided where and when this paste was born. Translated from Italian, carbonara is coal miners' pasta. According to one legend, it was loved by workers who burned wood near Rome.

According to another, less convincing version, carbonara appeared thanks to Italian-American friendship. During World War II, American soldiers arrived to defend Italy with bacon and powdered eggs in their backpacks, and their host nation supplied them with pasta. The Americans, in their simplicity, mixed pasta with scrambled eggs - and carbonara was born.

The legends don't end there. In 2005, an Italian magazine published an article claiming that carbonara originated in Osteria delle Tre Corone, in the Veneto region. Italian oppositionists to Carbonaria once met secretly there, and the pasta was named after them. The osteria is still operating and successfully feeds guests carbonara.

The age of carbonara is the only thing that is not in doubt. This is a young pasta; it appeared in recipe collections only in the middle of the 20th century. Buy good Italian durum wheat pasta for her. What you need is spaghetti - thin, long strands; silky sauce is best distributed over them. Our video at the top of the page will tell you how to boil spaghetti correctly so that it doesn’t stick together.

Drain the spaghetti in a colander and do not rinse it under any circumstances. Be sure to save a glass of the water you cooked the pasta in. Make this a habit; "broth" may always be needed if there is not enough moisture when mixing the pasta with the sauce.

Who hasn’t had pasta that has gone stiff and shrimp and green peas that haven’t stuck together? Intuitively, everything is usually added. But this only makes the pasta fattier, and the oil destroys the taste of the sauce. The Italians are more cunning; they add a little pasta water. Then the pasta turns out correct, sliding and shiny, just like the one served in trattorias on quiet Roman streets.

While the pasta is cooking, chop the bacon. It is better, of course, to take pancetta (it has a more concentrated taste, since the brisket is dried in the sun for a long time), but it is not sold in all stores. Fry the bacon in a frying pan over medium heat until the fat has rendered and the pieces have browned. If you turn the burner on high, the bacon may burn.

Break the eggs into a bowl, grate on a fine grater and stir. Gourmets advise using parmesan and sheep's pecorino in half, but believe me, after carbonara with one parmesan you will still want extra.

The most crucial moment is to combine the bacon, egg mixture and spaghetti. First add the paste to the bacon and stir with kitchen tongs. If you mixed them right on the stove, now is the time to remove the pan from the heat. It is very important! Why? Find the answer to this question in the main video.

The sauce should cover every millimeter of spaghetti. The heat from the pasta is enough to melt the cheese and cook the eggs. You don’t think that eggs in carbonara remain raw?! If the paste is sticky and lacks moisture, add some of the reserved “broth.” The right carbonara has a sauce that glides and shines like silk.

Serve immediately, carbonara can't wait. It is often even advised to place it on heated plates so that the pasta does not cool down longer. In winter, I am ready to eat carbonara at least every evening. This is a perfect, satisfying and very tasty pasta. In Russian frosts, it warms you from the inside. Try it! Bon appetit!

Pasta carbonara

Time

Ingredients(for 2 servings)

spaghetti - 1 package (about 250 g)

bacon or pancetta - 75 g

hard cheese such as Parmesan - 50 g

eggs - 2 pcs

yolk - 1 piece

olive oil - 1 tbsp. spoon

garlic - 1 clove

salt - 1 tbsp. spoon

freshly ground black pepper - 0.5 teaspoon

Preparation

1. Boil water in a large saucepan (at least five liters), add a tablespoon (or even two) of salt and add spaghetti. The water should be fairly salty. Cook for the amount indicated on the package. It is better if the pasta turns out al dente, that is, with a tiny white dot inside.

2. Cut the bacon into cubes, chop the garlic. Place a large frying pan over medium heat, add olive oil, add bacon and fry for 3-5 minutes. During this time, the fat will melt out of the bacon, and it will brown itself. Add garlic halfway through cooking. When the bacon is cooked, remove the pan from the heat and cover with a lid to keep it warm.

3. Grate the cheese on a fine grater. Break the eggs into a bowl, add another yolk, add the cheese, pepper and mix.

4. Drain the pasta in a colander, reserving one cup of the “broth.” Then add to the pan with the bacon and stir with kitchen tongs. If you mixed on the stove, move the pan to the kitchen counter. Add the egg-cheese paste - work quickly until it turns into a sauce and coats all the spaghetti. Is the sauce too thick and not silky? Add a few tablespoons of "broth" and stir again. Serve immediately, carbonara can't wait!

The Italians have done a good job in the culinary field and have given the world a large number of delicious dishes. One pizza is worth it, it is now eaten absolutely everywhere. But other dishes also deserve our very close attention, one of these dishes is pasta, that is, various spaghetti and pasta with sauces and additives. There is such a wide variety of them that you could write more than one book of recipes. But today the purpose of my article will be Italian pasta Carbonara with bacon in two versions: with cream and without cream.

Why these two options? Because they are the most popular and they are the ones known to most people. But since the debate about how to cook Carbonara pasta more correctly and tastier will never subside, I won’t choose one of these options. After all, even the Italians themselves make a choice according to their own taste and in different provinces and regions of the country they prepare Carbonara in their own way.

Pasta Carbonara with bacon - recipe with cream

Both recipes for the wonderful dish Pasta Carbonara with bacon are very tasty, but one way or another, everyone decides for themselves what they like best. It so happened in our family that we liked the recipe for pasta with cream more. It's all about the creamy flavor and how amazing it mixes with the smoked bacon. When we have Carbonara for dinner there is a real celebration in our house. And there are reasons for this.

This dish is best prepared for one meal, dinner or lunch, and not left for later. Pasta is, in principle, a dish that is most delicious in the heat of the heat, while the spaghetti is still hot and has not stuck together, and the sauce has not been absorbed. Therefore, calculate the proportions for the number of people. But to tell you the truth, Carbonara pasta is so delicious that hardly anyone can resist eating it all.

For this pasta, you can take classic spaghetti, capellini (thin and long) or linguine (wide and flat, like noodles). This is the best option. But if you suddenly don’t have long ones on hand, then take curly pasta. The taste will remain wonderful, only the appearance will change. The only advice is to use pasta (pasta) made from durum wheat, they are more elastic and do not become overcooked. Italians prepare just such pasta.

You will need:

  • spaghetti - 300 gr,
  • bacon (or brisket) - 300 g,
  • Parmesan cheese - 100 gr,
  • yolks - 3 pcs,
  • cream 10-20% - 200 ml,
  • salt, pepper to taste.

Preparation:

1. Place a large pot of salted water on the fire to cook the spaghetti. Remember, there should be a lot of water, because real Italian pasta is never washed with water. Just drain the water through a colander. To prevent spaghetti from sticking together and retain its shape, you need a lot of water.

2. Heat a frying pan on another burner. Add one teaspoon of olive oil if you have low-fat brisket instead of bacon. Fatty bacon doesn't need extra oil. Cut the bacon into medium-sized cubes or squares. Turn on medium heat and fry until golden brown.

3. Once the water in the pan is boiling, insert the whole spaghetti into it. Do not break them under any circumstances, they should remain long. As the bottom of the spaghetti softens from the hot water, lower them with a spoon or fork until the spaghetti is completely submerged. After this, cook them, stirring lightly for 5-10 minutes. The exact cooking time is indicated on the packaging and depends on the type of wheat from which they are made. Hard ones take longer to cook.

4. While everything is crackling and gurgling on the stove, prepare the sauce. Place the egg yolks in a separate bowl. Use the whites for another dish. Add half of the grated Parmesan cheese to the yolks. Use a fine grater because the cheese is quite hard. Mix egg and cheese.

5. Now pour the cream into the bowl with the yolks and cheese. Mix everything well. You can add salt and pepper to your taste. The sauce is almost ready, all you have to do is combine it with the rest of the ingredients.

6. When the bacon is golden brown and crispy, turn off the stove or remove the frying pan from the heat. This is for a while until the spaghetti is ready.

7. Now let's get back to the spaghetti, you need to take them out of the water, drain them into a colander, at the moment when they are almost ready. Fish out one piece and try it, it should be just a little stiff in the middle, a little elastic. This means it's time to take it out. The spaghetti will be ready in the frying pan along with the bacon and sauce from the residual heat. If you remove the spaghetti already fully cooked, it will be overcooked in the sauce and may stick together.

8. Place all the spaghetti in the pan with the bacon and mix everything well. Then add the entire sauce of cheese, cream and yolks. Stir in spaghetti, sauce and bacon.

9. Carbonara pasta with bacon is ready. Now, while it is hot and fragrant, place it on plates and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

Urgently call everyone to the table and try not to swallow their tongues from this delicacy during the meal. Enjoy your meal!

My own advice. If you want to brighten the taste of the pasta, add one clove of finely chopped garlic to the bacon in a frying pan and fry. It will turn out simply amazing.

Classic recipe - carbonara pasta with bacon without cream

The second option for preparing Carbonara pasta (second in order of listing, not in taste) is Carbonara without cream. Believe me, many people consider this particular recipe to be classic Italian. Let’s not argue with them, especially since I think both options are good. You can cook both the first and second and try to decide which one you like better. This will be quite difficult to do.

The basis of the sauce in Carbonara pasta without cream is eggs, Parmesan cheese and the water in which the spaghetti was cooked. There is nothing surprising about this; Italians often use water to prepare sauces; it is much tastier than diluting sauces with plain water.

To prepare for 2 large servings you will need:

  • spaghetti (cpellini, linguini) - 200 grams,
  • bacon or brisket (raw smoked/dry-cured) - 150 grams,
  • eggs - 2 pcs,
  • egg yolk - 1 piece,
  • Parmesan cheese - 50 gr,
  • olive oil,
  • garlic - 2 cloves,
  • salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:

1. To ensure that all processes go quickly and in parallel, start by cooking spaghetti. Place water in a large saucepan on the fire and bring to a boil. Add a teaspoon of salt. Add spaghetti without breaking it and cook. Stir the spaghetti occasionally with a spoon to ensure it is fully submerged and cooks evenly. The cooking time should be indicated on the spaghetti package, but when in doubt, just taste it.

2. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add a little olive oil. Take two cloves of garlic and crush them with a knife, placing it flat on top. Place crushed garlic in a frying pan in oil and heat thoroughly. We won’t eat garlic, we need it to give the oil a bright aroma; later it will need to be pulled out.

3. Cut the bacon or brisket into cubes. If you have strips of bacon already cut, simply cut them into small squares. Place the bacon in the pan and fry it lightly. Remove the garlic as soon as it starts to brown.

4. Break two whole eggs and one yolk into a bowl. Beat them with a whisk until the white and yolk are mixed. Then grate on the finest grater that you have Parmesan cheese. Add about two-thirds to the eggs and stir. Add freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of salt. You don't need a lot of salt because the bacon is already salted.

5. When the bacon gets a golden brown crust, you can add the prepared spaghetti to it. Drain them or simply fish them out with special tongs and place them directly in the pan with the bacon. Add a few tablespoons of water from the pan where the spaghetti was cooked. Stir everything a little and remove from the stove.

6. After you have mixed everything and removed the pan from the heat, pour the beaten eggs and cheese into the spaghetti and immediately start stirring. Due to the fact that the stove is turned off, the eggs will not be cooked but will turn into a thick sauce. Stir for a couple of minutes until the sauce evenly coats all the spaghetti. If you see that it is too thick and the Carbonara pasta is sticking, add a couple more tablespoons of water from the pan.

Proper Carbonara pasta should be juicy, the spaghetti should not stick together, but slide from the sauce. Bacon bits are common.

Like many recipes, the origins of the dish and its name are unclear. The dish is part of a family of dishes that include pasta and bacon, cheese and peppers, such as spaghetti alla gricia. Indeed, carbonara is very similar to the Southern Italian pasta "Cacio e uova", seasoned with melted lard and mixed with eggs and cheese.

There are many theories about the origin of the name. Since the name is derived from carbonari (an Italian word meaning coal miner), some believe that the dish was first made as a hearty lunch for Italian coal miners. In some parts of the United States, the etymology has given rise to what is known as "Miner's Spaghetti". Also, contrary to popular belief, this recipe has nothing to do with the Roman restaurant of the same name.

Pasta alla carbonara was first attested in 1950, when it was described in the Italian newspaper La Stampa as a dish sought by American officers after the Allied liberation of Rome in 1944. It was described as a Roman dish that many Italians eat with eggs and bacon. supplied to troops from the United States. Carbonara was included in Elizabeth David's English-language cookbook published in Great Britain in 1954.

Carbonara and cream

Cream is not used in the classic Italian recipe. Their addition is a consequence of mixing the recipe with the cuisines and cultures of different countries. Outside of Italy, you may find peas, broccoli, mushrooms or other vegetables in this dish.

How to make carbonara pasta at home?

The base of the sauce is whipped yolks with finely grated picorino Romano cheese. If you're wary of raw eggs, don't worry. The eggs will be cooked from the residual heat of the spaghetti and bacon. The main difficulty in preparing carbonara pasta according to the classic recipe is choosing the required temperature so that the eggs do not curl and turn into an omelette.

To prepare carbonara at home you will need a small amount of ingredients. There are only 5 of them! Agree, not many delicious dishes can be prepared in 15 minutes from 5 ingredients. The process is very simple and fast, which is why it has gained wide popularity on all continents.

The classic carbonara recipe is a real man's dish, and therefore very satisfying. In the original it is prepared with guanchile, that is, pork cheeks, but we are used to making it with bacon.

Every housewife can prepare pasta carbonara using this recipe. If you cannot find the traditionally used ingredients, you can always replace them.

Required Products:

  • guanchile, pancetta or pieces of plain bacon - 100 grams;
  • five tablespoons of olive oil;
  • seasonings;
  • 2 eggs;
  • approximately 100 grams of hard cheese;
  • spaghetti – 0.2 kg.

Cooking process:

  1. Place the contents of the eggs in a bowl, beat them lightly, combine with half the grated cheese and season with black pepper. We also mix the remaining cheese with pepper, but in a different container.
  2. Cook the spaghetti in salted water so that it is not boiled, but a little hard.
  3. In a hot frying pan, fry pieces of the selected meat so that its white parts become almost transparent.
  4. Turn off the heat, wait until the pan cools down a little, and pour in the egg mixture. Stirring until smooth.
  5. Place the boiled spaghetti here in the sauce, stir and before serving, sprinkle with cheese, which has been mixed with pepper.

Variation of carbonara with mushrooms

Another carbonara recipe, where mushrooms are very advantageously combined with meat and creamy sauce.

Required Products:

  • half an onion;
  • 0.4 kg spaghetti;
  • 150 grams of bacon;
  • 20 grams of butter;
  • seasonings;
  • 0.25 kg of mushrooms;
  • 0.2 liters of cream.

Cooking process:

  1. Chop the mushrooms and onions in any way, place them in a frying pan and fry until the onions become a beautiful color and all the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated.
  2. Reduce the heat level, pour in the cream, season with the selected spices and hold for about five minutes, constantly stirring the contents.
  3. Cook the spaghetti in a saucepan so that it is not soft, but slightly hard. In another frying pan, fry the bacon, chopped into strips, in butter.
  4. When serving, first place spaghetti on a plate, warm bacon on top and pour mushroom sauce over everything.

Cooking in a slow cooker

If you can no longer imagine the cooking process without using a multicooker, then this recipe is definitely for you. After all, with the help of this device you can also make delicious pasta.

Required Products:

  • 150 grams of bacon;
  • 0.2 liters of cream;
  • hard cheese – 150 grams;
  • seasonings;
  • the right amount of spaghetti;
  • two cloves of garlic.

Cooking process:

  1. Set the appliance to “Baking” mode, place chopped garlic and bacon or other meat product into a bowl. Fry all this for about 10 minutes.
  2. Add the specified amount of cream, season with spices (for example, black pepper) and keep in the bowl, stirring a little, until the entire contents become thicker and sauce-like.
  3. Grate the cheese, add it to the rest of the ingredients, stir and let it completely dissolve.
  4. Place spaghetti on top of the prepared ingredients. They need to be completely covered with clean water and the miracle stove must be switched to the appropriate mode for a quarter of an hour.

With chicken in cream sauce

A very tasty recipe for making regular pasta from what you can definitely find at home. Simple, budget-friendly, but the result will certainly please you.

Required Products:

  • 100 milliliters of cream;
  • seasonings;
  • 0.3 kg spaghetti;
  • two cloves of garlic;
  • 50 grams of parmesan;
  • three eggs;
  • 200 grams of chicken fillet.

Cooking process:

  1. We wash the chicken, chop it into small pieces and place it in a well-heated frying pan. Season with spices and fry until beautiful golden brown.
  2. During the frying process, add chopped garlic to the meat, and when it is almost ready, pour in the cream. Reduce heat and keep on the stove until they thicken slightly.
  3. Boil spaghetti until firm in boiling, salted water. Then we send them to the chicken, mix, and top with a sauce made from beaten eggs, grated cheese and seasonings.

All that remains is to simmer the dish for another two minutes, and it is ready to serve.

How to cook without cream?

Of course, carbonara with cream is much tastier, richer, more tender, and in general they are necessarily present in the classic version, but if for some reason it is not possible to use them, then it is worth considering another option.

Required Products:

  • 0.25 kg spaghetti;
  • seasonings;
  • bacon – 0.1 kg;
  • egg;
  • 50 grams of any hard cheese;
  • spoon of olive oil.

Cooking process:

  1. First, bring the pasta to readiness, not forgetting to salt the water.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the bacon cut into bars and fry until the white parts become almost transparent.
  3. Beat the egg a little, you can add black pepper there, and combine this mass with the hot pasta. Let it sit until the egg sets and turns white.
  4. Then we put bacon there - it will make the egg no longer raw, but still juicy. Sprinkle grated cheese on top and mix well until smooth, so that it melts from the hot ingredients.

How to make classic carbonara pasta sauce?

There are many variations of sauces for this dish, but, of course, the best, most delicious and most suitable is the traditional one, which was invented by the Italians.

Required Products:

  • 150 grams of bacon;
  • 0.2 liters of cream;
  • olive oil - spoon;
  • 2 cloves of garlic;
  • four yolks;
  • about 60 grams of any hard cheese;
  • spices.

Cooking process:

  1. The oil needs to be heated in a frying pan. Place crushed garlic there, it is best to press it under pressure. Keep the spice mixture in the pan until it browns.
  2. Turn the bacon into thin strips, combine with the garlic, and fry for about five minutes. The white parts should be transparent and the red parts should be a nice golden color.
  3. Beat the yolks a little, combine with cream and heat slightly. When the boiling process begins, add the bacon and garlic and simmer for two minutes. Season with pepper, add pre-grated cheese and stir.