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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Love it with steamed broccoli and an extra egg
Cooked this dish for the first time & it was delicious!
Delicious and simple to make. I double the recipe and 2 adults and 2 toddlers almost ate it all.
I think I will definitely need to double also, with three full grown men plus myself to feed 🙂
Have made other recipes for Pasta Carbonara but this recipe is a keeper. Will definitely make it again.
I added peas and used a combination of bacon and prosciutto.
Thanks for this weeknight Carbonara.
You should replace Bacon by Pancetta if possible, bacon flavour is too strong in my opinion. Pancetta is used in the original recipe.
Question! I see it says reserve the bacon fat but I don’t see where to incorporate it back into the recipe. Should you just reserve the excess fat in a jar in the fridge for another future use? Thanks!
I’m so NOT a cook, and I like making easy dishes that require only a few ingredients. I had bacon that I had to cook before it went bad, so I looked for a bacon pasta dish and came across this one. I love that this recipe doesn’t require special ingredients that one has to go out and buy. I forgot to reserve the pasta water, so the noodles ended up looking browner than I expected and a little chewier (I personally liked it) . BUT in the end, all 3 men asked for seconds and asked me to make it again! NOW that is saying something! Thank you!
I think that the recipe means to pour out of the skillet since you are still using it. Not pouring it out would make the dish too greasy. That’s my take
Easy and delicious!
So delicious – and so easy! Thanks!
Very easy to make so tasty. First time making this dish and I nailed it
Why are all your recipes so perfect?! This was amazing and my whole family gobbled it up. It was super easy to throw together and was the perfect comfort food after a long snow day! Thank you!!
Omg. I have been doing this wrong all along. This is perfect!
The eggs will start to scramble with this method. As an aside, I incorporate peas into this dish and I finish with some red chili flake but I like some heat
Turn the burner off before transferring the pasta then put some of the pasta water in the pan and also add a little to the egg/cheese mixture. Keep stirring the pasta when you dump the mixture in the pan and the eggs wont scramble.
To those worried about scrambling, take off the heat, use some water first, stir quickly as you add the mixture, adding water (you’ll probably need more than a Tablespoon) and they won’t scramble. I have several recipes of Carbonara I’ve acquired since first having it in Rome, but this is the quickest & most fail safe. I used thick apple smoked bacon from our butcher and Italian parsley from my kitchen garden that, fortunately, was blanketed by 12” of snow that saved it from the cold.
I personally found it AMAZING will definitely try again
Damm Delisios plus so easy .
It’s crazy to admit this, but I had never had spaghetti carbonara before!! My boyfriend bought some bacon and said we could make it. So a quick google search led me to this recipe and DAMNNNNNN it was so good! I’ve made it twice this week! So freaking easy
This was incredible and super easy! I doubled the recipe and followed the recipe exactly as written except that I added frozen peas at the same time as the garlic. Will definitely make again.
It was amazing and my family enjoyed it so much
Yes, Yes and Yes…….there is NO cream in Carbonara.
I use smoked speck in place of the bacon ( for the OH…I, myself would like bacon…..lol)
I also make enough for lunch next day, so I reserve much more pasta liquid just to lighten the pasta, as it absorbs most of the moisture overnight. Thank you
Love it so much!!!