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.
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has anyone tried it without the eggs? My son cant have eggs, is there anything else that can be used instead??
Try 1/2 cup fat free half and half instead? Just going off another recipe I have that uses peas and thyme but no egg. My daughter is anaphylactic to eggs, so I’m trying this tonight without eggs!
“Fat-free” half & half? Must be something highly processed. Real half & half has cream in it. Either is probably high in carbs (sugar) & real heavy cream is much better/healthier.
Made this for dinner, amazing, simple + easy. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi! all your recipes look delicious! (great pics too btw). I am going to try quite a few of them or maybe most of them!
Iove the recipes and photos thank-you. I plan on trying the carbonara tonight. I do have one other question? I’m looking for someone to shoot food photos. Is this something you do or do you use someone else to take them? Very interested in any help .
Thanks
Ben
All the photography here is shot by me.
This was a great recipe. It came out just perfect. I look forward to following some other recipes as well.
hi, don’t you need cream for this recipe? 🙂
Nope, no cream needed here.
Just made this for dinner and it was delicious – the best carbonara recipe I’ve tried by far! I added some chicken (just because I had it ready to use in something) and it all came together perfectly 🙂
Just wanted to say ever since I made your Southwestern Quinoa Bake, I whole-heartedly trust all your recipes to be delicious and have cooked a few now. I made this as my lunch for the week and it’s so good! I think I let too much time in between tempering the eggs & finally adding it into the skillet with the pasta, so I had teeny bits of the egg cooking, but it tasted great anyways!
I subbed whole wheat spaghetti instead, threw in 3/4 c. of frozen peas that I blanched in the pasta water, and scooped out most of the bacon grease so it was a thin coat! Thank you Chungah!!!
This is one of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever made. It was so easy and I can’t wait to make it again! Absolutely delicious. I didn’t have any problems with the eggs scrambling like some have experienced when making this.
measurements need too double this recipe?
Emma, if you want to double the recipe, you can multiply all measurements by 2.
I have to admit I was skeptical about the eggs but this was fabulous!! I added other veggies we had in hand and serves with a salad. The sauce was rich and so yummy. Thanks for another great recipe!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing!!! The kids even loved it. It was quick and easy to make and I always have the ingredients on hand so it’s an easy go to meal.
BIG SUCCESS! This evening I made this recipe according to your guidelines, and it was so awesome that I felt I had to write it here. My husband and I enjoyed a lot, and it reminded me so much the ones I had during my trip to Rome. Thanks , great blog!
My fav dish is this….Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon
I like the spicy, so used Jalepeno bacon. Delicious
Wonderfully easy and delish recipe! Everyone in the house loved it! WIll be using this quite often! Thanks!
Loved the carbonara receipe. It took me 15 minutes and it was great!!
Very yummy. I had to sub pepperoni as I was out of bacon and then supplemented the last of my Parmesan with cheddar. One kid devoured it, the picky eater opted for eggs. Oh well I loved it!
Ugh! I am out of fresh grated parm! Would it be a huge mistake to make this with dried/jarred parm (the kind they have in pizzerias)? I want to make this tomorrow night but won’t make it to the store until later in the week.
It is really up to you but I highly recommend using freshly grated Parmesan to obtain the best results possible.
this did tonight and it was yummy, I didn’t change anything!!