All recipes

Spaghetti carbonara

Eggs, cured pork, pecorino, pepper — an emulsion technique dish where the only hard part is not making scrambled eggs.

Serves
4
Active
25 min
Total
25 min

Roman, mid-20th-century, four ingredients plus pasta — and famously no cream. The sauce is a raw-egg-and-cheese emulsion cooked gently by the pasta's own heat; cream is the traditional workaround for not having the technique. Have everything ready before the pasta goes in: this dish is 90% mise en place, 10% nerve.

Ingredients

  • 400g spaghetti or rigatoni
  • 150g (5 oz) guanciale, cut into short batons pancetta works; bacon is a flavor departure but fine
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 80g (1 cup) Pecorino Romano, finely grated or half pecorino, half Parmigiano for less salt-punch
  • 2 tsp black pepper, coarsely ground, plus more to serve
  • Salt, for the pasta water go lighter than usual; the pork and cheese are salty

Method

  1. Whisk eggs, yolks, cheese, and pepper in a bowl into a thick paste. Set a large mixing bowl (or the same one) near the stove.
  2. Render the guanciale in a large skillet over medium-low until the fat has run and the pieces are golden and crisp at the edges, . Kill the heat; leave fat and pork in the pan.
  3. Cook the pasta in lightly salted water until just al dente. Reserve two cups of pasta water before draining.
  4. Tip the hot pasta into the skillet, toss to coat in the fat, then let it sit — the pan must be hot-not-scorching.
  5. Add a splash (~60ml) of pasta water to the egg mixture to temper it, then pour it over the pasta, tossing constantly and vigorously, adding pasta water a splash at a time, until the sauce turns glossy and coats every strand — . It thickens as it cools, so stop slightly looser than you want.
  6. Serve immediately with more pepper and cheese.

Why it works

  • The eggs cook at ~65–70°C, not pan temperature. Between residual pasta heat, hot starchy water, and constant motion, the proteins thicken without setting. Toss in the pan off the heat; the classic failure — scrambled egg pasta — comes from direct flame under the eggs.
  • Pasta water is the emulsifier. Its starch lets fat, egg, and cheese hold together as a sauce instead of splitting into grease and clumps. This is the same starch-emulsion trick as cacio e pepe, with egg as a safety net making carbonara the easier of the two.
  • Extra yolks = insurance. Yolks thicken smoothly over a wide temperature band; whites set fast. Shifting the ratio toward yolks widens your margin of error.
  • Classic pitfalls: cream (masks the point of the dish), garlic and onion (not in the Roman version — know you're deviating), and pre-grated cheese (won't melt smooth; grate it fine, fresh).

Wine pairing

A crisp central-Italian white — Frascati is the Roman answer, as with cacio e pepe. Guanciale fat, egg richness, and pecorino salt all want acidity, and a light unoaked white delivers it without adding weight. Franciacorta (or another dry sparkler) is the upgrade: bubbles cut the emulsion's richness cleanly. Reds fight the egg; if you must, keep it light and low-tannin.

Sources