Spaghetti alla Carbonara is a favourite of many around the world. There is an endless cream/no-cream debate that takes place outside of Italy on a regular basis in relation to Carbonara (right now people are probably arguing about it somewhere) and I think this argument largely takes place because outside Italy there are a number of generic Italian restaurants that make theirs with cream instead of egg to appeal more to the masses. Also, the taste, texture and feeling of spaghetti alla carbonara is most definitey one of creaminess, and if you had to guess, you would likely say it was made with cream.
My brother and I (both Australian born Italians) actually had a pretty aggressive verbal argument over Christmas about cream/no-cream. He is in the cream camp, and I am firmly entrenched in the no-cream camp, behind a barricade, refusing to move. He told me that when he was travelling in Italy, an Italian chef from the south taught him a version with cream, and I told him that while he taught him a lovely pasta, it wasn’t a carbonara it was “alla crema” and that spaghetti alla carbonara comes from Italy’s capital city, Rome, in the Lazio region.
The beauty of our argument was that the passion with which we both argued our cases led to an uneasy truce – an agree-to-disagree situation which I only agreed to because he was making his version of a carbonara with cream… and I was hungry. I’ve since done a lot more research after Christmas, and I’m happy to report that I am right (although, once he reads this, I’m sure I’ll get a call and our argument will continue into the night). But, I have a food blog and he doesn’t, so I think that means I win the argument right?!
If you need something more substantial than “I just know”, thankfully the ancestors of my Italian heritage are sticklers for the “right way to do things”. So, naturally there is an Accademia Italiana della Cucina (The Italian Academy of Cuisine) which painstakingly identifies the traditional dishes and highlights the recipes their panel has agreed are traditional. You can find the Spaghetti alla Carbonara page (in Italian) here.
Now, I’m not saying that you can’t experiment with Italian flavours, you totally can you just have to be careful what you call it. Instead of using chicken eggs for my carbonara, I’ve used some glorious duck eggs that were given to me as a gift from the lovely Tass and Vern at Jamberoo Valley Farm (remember them from my no-churn ice cream post a little while ago). It takes the carbonara to the next level of richness but it’s carbonara, so you might as well indulge.
The duck eggs can easily be replaced with chicken eggs in this dish though, so I have listed both in the recipe below for you. Quite simply this dish is pasta, egg, guanciale, pecorino cheese, salt and pepper. A handful of ingredients that transform to create something truly incredible – the trademark of a great Italian dish.
TIPS
As with all my Italian recipes, I suggest using the best ingredients your budget can afford. Also, make sure you use the freshest eggs you can find – it will yield the best results. Guanciale might be an ingredient that you aren’t familiar with, but basically it is a cured meat made from pork cheek (“guancia” means cheek in Italian) which results in a slightly fattier cured meat not used for eating on its own but used as a pasta ingredient due to its incredible flavour. If your local Italian butcher doesn’t have it, you can use pancetta or bacon instead, or in America you can use jowl bacon which is the closest thing to guanciale.
The cheese is important too, and I used a hard pecorino cheese for this dish in keeping with tradition. Alternatively, you can use a combination of pecorino and Parmigiano-Reggiano or just the Parmigiano.
Last tip, make sure the egg and cheese mixture is stirred through the pasta after it comes off the heat and is drained. The creaminess come from the residual heat and a dash of the pasta water emulsifying the ingredients to create the sauce. If you cook the eggs and cheese with the pasta over heat, the eggs will scramble.
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Ingredients
- 150g guanciale (or pancetta, or bacon), cut into small cubes or pieces
- 500g dried spaghetti
- 3 egg yolks + 1 whole egg
- 100g pecorino cheese, finely grated
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
Preheat a saucepan over medium high heat. Add the guanciale (without oil as it will release its fat with cooking) and sauté stirring constantly until translucent and beginning to brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Don't add salt as the guanciale and cheese are quite salty. Add the dried pasta and cook as per the packet instructions.
Meanwhile, add the eggs to a large glass bowl and whisk until even. Add the pecorino and pepper to taste, and then whisk again until well combined. Add the guanciale and whisk again. Then set aside.
Once the pasta has cooked, drain the pasta retaining a cup-full of the pasta water, and then add the pasta immediately to the egg and cheese mixture in the bowl and toss to coat the pasta with the egg mixture. It is important to add the pasta to the bowl with the eggs off the heat for the right consistency. If the pasta needs loosening a little, then add a little of the pasta water (not the whole cup, just in small amounts to emulsify).
Serve and enjoy immediately topped with more grated pecorino and black pepper.
Aaaaand now I’m drooling! That pasta looks absolutely delicious!
It was! So rich… but that’s just the way I like it.
Yup, and that is why we are friends. I am a camp eggs girl. Though I do love a creamy alternative, but it isn’t carbonara. (I’m getting passionate and I’m not even Italian!!) I can only begin to imagine how decadent this is using glorious duck eggs!
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So decadent
You may not be an Italian but you lived there for a time so you passion is totally acceptable!!
Such a great dish! There’s a reason this is a classic. Haven’t made this for ages — need to again, and soon. Thanks!
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It really is a classic isn’t it! I think many people are going to bust out a carbonara soon. Love it!
You and your brother are both right… sorta kinda. When I lived in Rome in the mid to late ’90s, I would often go to a tiny nameless hole-in-the-wall behind la Chiesa Nuova, on Governo Vecchio. I see it’s now called Da Tonino — sure hope the food is just as good. They always offered their pasta alla carbonara asciutta (yellow with puddled egg yolk) or secca (looking like in your pictures), so it was all about one’s personal taste, not that one version was better than the other, Either way, theirs was considered the best carbonara in Rome by those in the know. With no name, no posted hours, no phone, no reservations, you took your chances they’d be open when you got there or deign to serve you if you arrived at the end of lunch service. It paid bigtime to be a regular. I still drool over the memories of that carbonara asciutta, Really enjoy your blog.
Barbara, what a great story!! Fingers crossed it is the same place… just with a name. It has gone on the list of places to visit when I’m next in Rome!
I still remember the argument I had with my head chef when I was an 18 year old apprentice, telling her how the carbonara she made (and expected me to make) wasn’t the way it should be done. Loads of cream and cornflour to thicken. It got so heated that her husband came down and they both asked me to leave. I basically lost my job for a few days, before they realised they needed me and took me back. I still had to make carbonara with cornflour-thickened cream on return, though gritted teeth.
Gosh… if they were using cream and cornflour to thicken… then they DEFINITELY needed you. Can’t imagine you sticking that out for long. x
Yes! No cream!! This is how we pretty much make it too. My father-in-law doesn’t like cream and so has refused to eat carbonara because he thought it was made with cream. We’re yet to make it for him but we’ll get on it soon. Especially when the cooler season picks up.
That cracks me up, that Academia Italiana della cucina website! It’s so typical Italian. Everyone argues about food! So of course there has to be an official ruling of sort, to set things straight. Won’t stop the arguments between you and your brother though.
Woo-hoo! I love how marrying into an Italian family has made you totally Italian. xx Isn’t that Academia site awesome?!
Team no cream represent! This is one of my fave go to pasta recipes due to its simplicity & taste.
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Yes! We need some sort of secret no-cream hand shake.
I am of the no cream camp, so I have your back Amanda. BUT I would probably make a truce if he was making a plate of it too. Ha!
Thanks for the Accademia Italiana della Cucina link,too.
This version look unctuously delicious with the guanciale. A favorite Italian restaurant we frequent here in San Diego, Monello’s, serve a spot on version with pancetta. Heaven
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Glad to hear you would also make a truce when it came down to it. I like that I’m not alone. I love it with pancetta too, guanciale is a little harder to find.
Hi Amanda: I emigrated from England in 1967 (where we only ate HEINZS spagetti in a can! Arrived in Australia every spaghetti was drowned in CREAM. (better than heinzs spaghetti in a canI BUT! I met my husband in Melbourne and ended up in Liguria where I found out that CREAM has nothing what so ever to do with (most) spaghetti dishes. When I ate my first carbonara here- the best ever. My mother could not believe it! Cream was used in Australia to meet British tastes but after 4 years when I went down again, they had started making real Italian spaghetti dishes! without CREAM! You are right No cream in carbonara! My mother did not even now what it was – my mother in law taught me and my family in Australia love it!
What a great story Linda! The beauty of Australia now is that Italian restaurants are returning to traditional methods rather than trying to appeal to tastes. As we become more food oriented as a country, the foods can return to the way they are meant to be. Its partly why Australian ice-cream and pizza makers keep winning international food competitions.
It looks delicious. I was taught to make carbonara with egg when I lived in Florence and I was very surprised it only contained egg after working in Australian and British kitchens, where as you know it was drowned in cream. Anyways, yours looks so good.
Thanks Tania. So jealous you lived in Florence. I’m trying to figure out how I can take a 6 month sabbatical to Italy.
Mmm, I am drooling right now! I am in the no cream camp with you, but for now I need to dash to check if I have the ingredients for this!
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Fingers crossed you have them
I’m definitely in the egg camp.
Way to go Pam!
This looks so delicious and I have to tell you that your a wonderful photographer. I just want to lick my screen.
My friends and wife are crazy for this dish. I don’t eat meat, but live through them on this one.
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I’m Team Egg too although I do love a creamy pasta but it ain’t carbonara!
Hello! Does this version of the recipe use duck eggs or chicken? I saw you had it with duck eggs originally but I only see one version of the recipe, so just want to be sure I’m using the right amount of eggs
Thanks!