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 sounds delicious and so simple. Trying it out for tonights dinner!
Making this for the second time. I love love love love love love love it. I feel like I finally learned how to make the pasta be like I’ve always wanted it. Thank you! Big fan of your site. Use it weekly 🙂
This recipe does not work at all, I’m sorry to say. I brought the eggs to room temperature before cracking them and in the end, it still amounted to a scrambled egg dish with bacon and pasta. It’s tasty (thanks to the bacon), but the consistency is all wrong, and it would have been too dry without some sort of cream. I’m afraid it’s not a keeper for me.
Jenn, if the eggs are scrambling, then your heat source is set too high. It’s the eggs that creates that amazing light coating on the pasta – cream just isn’t needed here when this is cooked properly. I really hope you get a chance to try this again! 🙂
This looks wonderful — thanks for posting it. I may make this for lunch today.
One question: why is there a youtube window in the Print setup for this? It won’t close, and makes the recipe split oddly between two pages when printing.
Hmmmmm, weird. I’m not seeing any kind of YouTube window on my end.
Add some Shallots. Trust me. It will taste even better (if that’s possible)!
Hey, I just wanted to say how much I love it here. Your recipes are ALWAYS great and just what I’m looking for. Easy, delicious and made with fresh ingredients. I often share, Pin and link your blog up from my blog. It’s one of those places that never disappoint. THANKS!
I made this last night for the husband and the kids, and everyone loved it! I made the recipe a little bigger because my family is large. Everything turned out well! Next time, I will probably do a little more bacon (we love bacon) and maybe use a little bit of cream or a slight bit of sun dried tomato / alfredo sauce. Not a lot, just to add a little more moisture. Mine was a tad dry, but I am not super skilled in the kitchen,either, so its probably something I did wrong. Still tasted WONDERFUL! Thanks for sharing, this is now on my list of regular meals to cook 🙂
This was quick, easy and delicious! My family though a professional chef had taken over our kitchen.
Just made this for dinner! Delish!! Thanks!
Loved this! I had all of the ingredients at home already! Super easy and tasty. I do live in Switzerland now, and I tried a carbonara in Bern that had pumpkin in it. Was DELICIOUS for fall flavors. Went well with the bacon!
I made this last night!! It’s a new family favorite!! Delicious and SUPER easy!!
Does this travel well?
This is really best when served immediately.
Looks so simple and good, carbonara made the authentic style, thanks for sharing!
YUMMY! I made this and my husband and I LOVED it! I did not make any substitutions but we always cook up our bacon and freeze it and the fat so I had to guess the amount of reserved fat to use. I must have guessed correctly because my husband couldn’t stop raving about it 🙂 I just recently found your site so I am late to the party but looking forward to trying all your delicious looking recipes!! THANK YOU!
I can’t wait to try this; looks delicious
I made this last night and just as promised, it was SO easy. I followed other comments and added some pasta water to the eggs first, as I was very worried about them scrambling – I’ve had a bad experience in the past – but I needn’t have worried, it came out perfectly. My husband isn’t a carbonara lover because cream is usually involved (which is also why I don’t usually make it), but he was absolutely raving about this. Thank you!
I make this dish regularly and never use eggs! Instead I use fresh cream along with scallion or onion, mushrooms and garlic. Its so tasty 🙂
Oh. My. Word.
This is awesome ! I made it today for a quick lunch after church – My husband LOVED it ! I have used a similar Martha Stewart recipe for years , which substitutes bacon with broccoli. This is SOOOO easy and great ! Thank you ! I am so thankful for finding your blog !!!
I just made this for dinner tonight and it was so delicious! I added onions and serrano peppers for flavor and spice. Will definitely make this again <3 THANKS FOR THE AMAZING RECIPE.
I just made this and I cannot believe how easy it is andado good! I’m a bad cook so I also don’t believe I made something delicious!! (And did not have scramble eggs