Pasta Carbonara (Amalfi Coast Recipe) - Tastefully Grace (2024)

FAQs

What is the golden rule of cooking a carbonara? ›

What is the golden rule of cooking a carbonara? The golden rule of cooking carbonara is to never cook the sauce over direct heat once the eggs are added.

Whisk Like You Mean It

You're using more egg yolks than whites here, which is what makes carbonara so rich and luxurious. But there's still two eggs-worth of whites in there. Whisking your eggs so that the whites are completely incorporated into the yolks will give your sauce a more uniform texture.

What not to put in Spaghetti Carbonara? Don't put garlic, cream, milk or butter. It is not needed. It is fine if you want to make a dish with those ingredients, but if you want to learn how to make this dish correctly, use only pecorino, eggs/egg yolks, black pepper, guanciale, and pasta water.

Taste.com.au Food Director, Amira Georgy, confirmed this, saying: “Traditionally, carbonara sauce contains no cream, just eggs and cheese. The eggs and cheese are added to the hot pasta and tossed together until a silky sauce forms.”

I like to use a ratio of 1 whole egg to 3 egg yolks because it balances the richness. If you are looking to avoid using raw eggs, I would recommend making my Cacio e Pepe recipe – this is another one of the four classic Roman pastas but requires only three ingredients (cheese, pepper, and pasta).

Why It Works. A sauce of mostly yolks has a richer, silkier, tighter texture than one made with only whole eggs.

Also, I am fully aware many Italians do not use garlic in cooking carbonara. Neither is olive oil is a necessity, but the final result of my recipe is pretty spot on! If I do say so myself.

Carbonara is made with guanciale (cured pork), eggs, Pecorino Romano cheese, spaghetti pasta, and lots of black pepper. Italians don't add extra ingredients like cream, milk, garlic, or onions. Try this recipe if you want to make an authentic, creamy carbonara that comes straight from Italy, where I live.

To avoid the dreaded scramble, the goal is to not let your eggs get too hot too quickly. Rather than add your eggs straight into your carbonara pan, crack them into a different bowl with the Pecorino. From there, you have a few options for how to combine the mixture with your pasta.

Why is carbonara so hard to make? ›

It uses the correct egg to egg yolk ratio

Using too many whole eggs will create a thin sauce; using too many egg yolks will create a stubborn paste that's difficult to loosen and toss through the pasta. The perfect ratio, however, creates the rich, silky smooth Carbonara Sauce.

Egg whites will provide texture but too much could make the eggs curdle. Meanwhile, egg yolks help to bind the pork fat to the sauce. This also helps to enhance the creaminess. So a good rule to follow is to include one egg yolk per person and one egg white per four people.

Using a large mixing bowl and setting it over the boiling pasta water to create a makeshift double boiler helps prevent you from accidentally scrambling the eggs.

Guanciale – This is a key ingredient in carbonara, and is a cured fatty pork that is similar to bacon and pancetta. It adds adds flavour into the dish and the fat makes the sauce creamy when mixed with the egg and starchy pasta cooking water.

Replete with Pecorino Romano cheese, pepper, and guanciale, this Roman pasta comes in rich and creamy, thanks in no small part to its reliance on eggs. Eggs — typically 4 yolks to every 1 whole egg — are essential for carbonara sauce. Without the eggs, you'd have cacio e pepe instead of carbonara.