a picture of a white bowl with cooked spaghetti carbonara

Pasta alla Carbonara

This recipe is from The Delia Collection: Italian.

This is my favourite, and the very best version I know of the great classic Italian recipe for pasta with bacon and egg sauce.

I used to make it with English bacon and Parmesan cheese, but now we are able to get Italian pancetta and Pecorino Romano cheese, it is a great improvement.

You can now watch how to make Pasta alla Carbonara in our Cookery School Video, just click the image to play.

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Method

First heat some pasta bowls ready for serving.

Then in a large saucepan heat 2.25 litres of salted water and bring it up to a good fierce boil, then add the pasta and boil briskly, uncovered for 9-10 minutes until al dente. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan and fry the pancetta without any extra oil until it’s crisp and golden, about 5 minutes.

Next, whisk the eggs, yolks and cream in a jug with a generous seasoning of black pepper then whisk in the cheese. When the pasta is cooked, drain it quickly in a colander, leaving a little of the moisture still clinging.   Now quickly return it to the saucepan and add the pancetta and any oil in the pan, along with the egg and cream mixture.

Stir very thoroughly, so that everything gets a good coating – what happens is that the liquid egg cooks briefly as it comes into contact with the hot pasta. Serve the pasta on really hot deep plates with some extra grated Pecorino Romano.