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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Absolutely scrumptious.Enjoyed the coating on the pasta….creamy and cheesy!Definitely will stay in rotation at our house ,yum
Easy to prepare. I may have overcooked the bacon, but it was great!
Awesome recipe so darn good!!
Never combine the ingredients in the pan you have had on the burner. The eggs will cook and harden. Place a stainless steel mixing bowl under your colander and let the pasta water heat the bowl. Discard the water and use the heated bowl to combine all ingredients. Toss for at least two minutes.
Not entirely true, you can achieve authentic good carbonara with adding the pecorino and egg cream to spaghetti and guanciale that are sizzling in the pan.
You simply have to turn off the heat *prior* to adding the egg and cheese cream, otherwise you’re likely end up with scrambled eggs
But there’s no need to add extra steps like that, really
I’ve always been afraid to try carbonara because I was sure I’d end up with scrambled eggs, but holy cow was this easy and delicious! I will admit that I cheated though – I was out of bacon, but I had bacon bits (the soft ones, not the little crunchy ones) so I tossed them in some melted butter in lieu of real bacon with the grease. I tempered my egg mixture with a little pasta water and it came out perfect!
My family loves this recipe and it’s so easy!
This was GREAT
a few things I will change but no big deal
Great simple recipe, it came out delicious and will always use this recipe
Delicious! My first time ever making carbonara. I like a lot of sauce so I added an extra egg and an extra 1/4 cup of Parmesan and it was absolutely delicious. Such an easy recipe and tastes just like a proper carbonara. I chose this recipe as it didn’t contain cream.
Can you use any type of pasta or just Spaghetti?
Nice recipe!
Just a suggestion: can you include metric measurements too for your recipes?
Damn delicious this recipe is quick and awesome and I can’t stop eating !!!!!!!!!
I used a lil pancetta and bacon for some extra taste!!!!!
I’ve been making this recipe for several years and it’s my favorite go-to pasta dish. Incredibly tasty!
Outstanding! I only had this 1 other time and it was prepared by my friend who went to the Culinary Institute of America. Mine was just as good as his and I’m a terrible cook!
So tasty and easy to make!
In the end, it was very good. It was only my 3rd time cooking (I only just started cooking once a week, I’m not even a teenager yet). I didn’t quite get it right because I didn’t work fast enough with the egg, so I put it in the frypan for a while to cook the egg. It tasted amazing and I will definitely make this again one day.
It was the first time cooking it and it was delicious some may like it with some cream but it was lovely
Split household on this recipe. I enjoyed it but my wife wasn’t particularly impressed. I will fix this dish again!
I’ve made pasta carbonara often since visiting Italy but this recipe by far is my favorite! Tonight I’m making it for company along with baby back ribs slow cooked with a dry rub
Tonight I’m adding wild caught prawns and broccoli and doubling the smoked bacon garlic and eggs and grated fresh parm and Romano
Making sure the eggs are at room temperature beforehand will help ensure the eggs don’t curdle
I have made this a couple times and its always so good and easy.
Do you remove the bacon grease or leave it? Reserve excess bacon fat is not clear.
Thanks!
You leave the bacon grease to emulsify with the eggs to create the creaminess.
Delicious! Best carbonara recipe for sure. Will use again. Was cooking for my 5 year old also so I kept the garlic cloves whole and just bruised them so I could take it out.
OMG. This recipe for pasta carbonara is not only super easy to make but oh so delicious!! I used pancetta from Whole Foods & Rummo gluten free pasta from Italy because I’m gluten sensitive & it’s the best. Wow. I’ll definitely be making this again.