Spaghetti Carbonara
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The easiest pasta dish you will ever make with just 5 ingredients in 15 min, loaded with Parmesan and crisp bacon goodness!
I have yet another super easy pasta dish for you all today. And the best part about this dish is that you only need 5 ingredients to whip this up! No wait, the best part is the bacon. Yeah, the bacon.
No, but really, this is one of those dishes that comes together in 15 minutes or less with just 5 ingredients of spaghetti, bacon, garlic, Parmesan and eggs. And if you’re skeptical about the raw eggs, it actually gets cooked through completely from the residual heat. Just be sure to work quickly so you don’t end up with scrambled eggs. Plus, with the crisp bacon bits, you just can’t go wrong with this dish!
Spaghetti Carbonara
Ingredients
- 8 ounces spaghetti
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Equipment
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; reserve 1/2 cup water and drain well.
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and Parmesan; set aside.
- Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes; reserve excess fat.
- Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to low.
- Working quickly, stir in pasta and egg mixture, and gently toss to combine; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add reserved pasta water, one tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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This came up when I searched for an easy dinner to make for my family. I had all the ingredients on hand, except I had to use dried parsley. I read the reviews beforehand (took advise with eggs) followed receipe (just doubled it) and it was just as I hoped, delicious! Myfamily enjoyed it. Looking forward to trying the alfredo tortellini recipe next. Thank you!
Super yummy! My whole family loved it!
Hey,
Better to mix the parmesan cheese with the eggs in a bowl.
Separately, bake the meat with Garlic.
Pasta in the water.
When it’s all done, you mix it all together in the pan where you cooked the pasta (minus the water of course now)
Wait a little bit, making sure that the pot isn’t too hot. Scrambled eggs need to be avoided.
I’m mentioning this because the video is slightly misleading, in that throwing the egg/cheese mixture in the pan will lead to instant scrambled eggs. Also the water isn’t needed in my technique.
Side note: little bit of Nutmeg can be very nice, in the parma egg mixture.
Good luck
Just made this for dinner and it was great! I did temper the egg/cheese mixture with some pasta water and it was very easy to toss in the pasta without it getting scrambled. I also used Trader Joes grated cheese which has more of a powder like substance. It did not get gummy and I think it mixed it perfectly. I also did the sauce in my electric skillet so the bacon wouldn’t make a huge mess over the stove. Overall, the pasta had a smoky background note due to the bacon. I would definitely make this again and would like to use pancetta next time for comparison. I have always wanted to try carbonara at home and the video gave me the courage to give it finally make it. Thank you!
Super great!!
Great recipe, I make carbonara a few times a year but I only use 1 egg. Most recipes use too many eggs and some use cream? cream? Thanks for posting this recipe.
t.r.
Made pasta carbonara last night, soo o delicious and easy. Will make again.
I was SO excited to make this dish and I REALLY wanted to like it. Really! But it wasn’t to be . . .
1. It took a lot longer than 5 minutes to prep.
2. It took a lot longer than 6-8 min to cook and crisp the bacon.
3. “Reserve the excess fat” means to cook the bacon and set the fat aside. (Looking at the comments after I’d made this dish showed that I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t sure what to do with the leftover fat.)
4. I had to add WAY more than a few tbsp. of the pasta water in order to reach a “dry consistency.”
5. But, using the pasta water only diluted the flavour of this dish. Using cream would have been much better.
The end result? Way too much work for a dry, pasta dish that lacked flavour.
Oh yum! Even my husband liked it and he hates everything new.
When you say to reserve the excess fat from the bacon, do you mean leave it in the pan to cook with?
Yes, that is correct.
So good! This will definitely go into my monthly rotation of dinners! You can easily add in spinach or asparagus.
Great idea for additions.
What do I do with the “reserved” grease?
It remains in the pan – it’s the grease for your garlic, infusing the carbonara dish with bacon fat! 🙂
Thanks for this spaghetti carbonara recipe, it’s so easy nutritious and saves alot of time in preparation keep up the good work
It’s one of our all-time favorites. Glad you found it!
I love this!! Made it many times. I just wish it could be made ahead someway!
This was so delicious – my husband wanted it twice in 1 week!!! Second time I forgot the parsley – won’t do that again. It makes a huge difference. So Yummy!!!! Many thanks
Awesome Jo Ann! Thanks for sharing.
I made this tonight, but sadly I burned the bacon. I could tell the flavor was great, but the bacon set it back. Next time I might bake the bacon in the oven and then chop it up. Also, love the idea of pancetta from other reviews, pre-chopped would have been dreamy. We added a Tb of butter. Will make again.
Oh that’s too bad! Glad you still liked it, but yeah, the burned bacon will override the other flavors. Better luck next time! Thanks for sharing 🙂
To.die.for. Added more bacon because…bacon. Also added a bit of cream which I know you technically aren’t supposed to have in carbonara, but if I’m making a cheat meal I’m going big! I very nearly had scrambled eggs on pasta (even after leaving the eggs out for 30mins prior), but the pasta water saved me at the last second. I would recommend tempering even more than I did and completely removing the pan for heat when mixing the egg in. And I don’t think I reserved enough of the pasta water (it was surprisingly thick), so mental note for next time.
Oh my goodness, this was an absolutely amazing recipe!!! We added peas to ours at the end. It turned out so delicious that my son was half way done with his plate by the time I served myself and sat down lol
This will definitely be on our weekday dinner list, thank you!!!!
I had this dish in Rome, Italy a few months ago. That’s when I got SO hooked on it. However, they served it with a RAW egg yoke right in the middle of the fresh steamy pasta and it was very pepper-y. My husband nearly freaked out. LOL You just have to immediately stir the yolk into the hot pasta. The restaurant made their pasta fresh everyday. I asked how they made the Carbonara and was surprised that they actually told me. I make it every few weeks now and everyone I serve it to, loves it! My recipe is very much like this one but sometimes I change up the herbs and spice it up a bit. Yes, they do use pancetta for this dish in Italy, they stir the beaten eggs and cheese together to combine, then take the pan OFF the stove when they add the egg mixture in. I’ve never had a problem with the eggs scrambling if you stir them in vigorously and add a little pasta water to make the sauce more “saucy”. We LOVE this dish!!!
Added peas tomatoes green onion and served over a bed of arugula. Awesome sauce! Thank you!