Spaghetti Carbonara
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
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?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Why would anyone, YES ANYONE, want to make spaghetti carbonara without bacon? This would be an absolute sin in the bible cook book.
Could you tell me please which of the 8 ingredients are the five
Salt, pepper and parsley (used as a garnish) are not included in the five ingredients. Does that make sense?
Great answer. Makes perfect sense to me.
Made this tonight! So quick, easy and delicious!! Thanks for sharing! Also the comments were spot on with tempering the eggs first which I did and had no issues! 🙂
This was amazing! Big hit with the kids!
Haha this is exactly how I learned to cook it in Italy! Only we used pancetta instead of bacon (but either are delish) and pulled the pan off the fire before we added the egg/cheese mixture.
If you grate a bit of fresh nutmeg over after plating it will give the flavor profile a third dimension that’s amazing.
Look very tasty. Thanks!
Very nicely done, one of my favourite dishes for sure (:
So reserved bacon fat not used in recipe? Saved for later
It is used for step #4 for the garlic.
This recipie is super easy and it was so delicious!
This might be a silly question but can I do this without the egg? My husband cannot eat eggs. Thank you!
Believe it or not, the egg is actually a crucial element to this dish! You can certainly omit but the flavors/consistency of the dish may be completely altered. As always, please use your best judgement regarding substitutions and modifications.
Made this for the first time tonight and it was perfect! Very yummy, will definately do it again.
Here is my recommendation to keep the eggs from scrambling:
Once the pasta is done, place it into a large mixing bowl. Then, add the bacon/ garlic once cooked. After that’s all stirred together, you add the egg mixture.
The eggs will still cook from the residual heat, but aren’t less likely to scramble up since there’s not a direct heat source.
This was insanely easy. Tasted creamy and delicious. I used a whole box of thin spaghetti and added one additional egg and total 3/4c parm. Even used someone’s tip to temper egg mixture w a little drizzle of pasta water. Used a very large bowl. Put in bacon and garlic. Once pasta was done used tongs to transfer to bowl. Added egg parm mixture. Everyone loves it!
This is NOT how you make a carbonara!
At least here in Italy the only things to use are:
Spaghetti
Pancetta or guanciale (please, not bacon!)
Eggs (raw! they should be like a cream)
Pepper (a lot of pepper)
Pecorino (Grana is commonly used)
There is absolutely NO way that parsley is used in this dish
Grazie per portare avanti la battaglia!
I will try it your way one night too 🙂
I loved it despite my eggs scrambling throughout. I didn’t think to look at the comments, so next time I will leave the eggs out a while and/or remove the pan from the stove before mixing them in. Otherwise, I thought it tasted great. I would even like to add more bacon, as there definitely wasn’t enough throughout the dish. When it comes to bacon, more is more! 🙂 Thanks for an relatively easy, weeknight meal I can add to my previously humdrum rotation!
Hi! I love this recipe! My picky 5 year old loves it too and it’s so easy! Thank you so much!
New blogger here, what plugin do you use for your images? They’re so big and beautiful! Love your site!
I’m actually not using a plugin! 🙂
I first saw this on a TV series “Criminal Minds” and had to look it up as it looked pretty yummy. Your pics grabbed me and when I realized how simple…I was smitten. So glad I read the comments because I had no idea about the tempering of eggs. Because I had no fresh parsley I added fresh basil. One last change was a splash of white wine. Just couldn’t help myself–I’m American (wink). Was pretty darn good. So glad I found your site and look forward to tying another delicious dish.
Hi,
may I suggest you to try the original pasta alla carbonara?
No garlic and no parsley, just like we Romans use to make it 🙂
http://www.lacuochinasopraffina.com/en/pasta-and-rice/the-authentic-italian-pasta-alla-carbonara/12427
Aaaahhhh…. Thank you!
Tried this tonight – dear Lord is it tasty! My fiancé scarfed down a bowl and declared it a “keeper.” So easy, so good! Thanks for the recipe.
I have made this 3 times now and it is always a hit for everyone. I have to double it so everyone can have seconds. I have never had my eggs scramble. Tonight I am trying it with spaghetti squash instead of noodles. Thank you for a simple delicious meal. I have tried 2 other carbonara recipes and and they were not as amazingly delicious as this one.