Four Ingredient Carbonara (bacon and eggs pasta)

This is a simple but delicious Carbonara recipe that uses only four ingredients: spaghetti, cheese, one egg, and one slice of bacon. (Allegedly, the name "carbonara" is a reference to the coal miners in Italy who frequently ate cured pork and eggs and this kind of stuff for lunch.) The yoke is served on top of the pasta raw; when the yoke is mixed throughout the pasta, giving the pasta a rich smooth peppery egg sauce punctuated by crunchy bits of bacon.

For such a simple dish, it is surprisingly satisfying. It's hard to beat a bowl of cheesy, bacony, peppery, eggy goodness. After I adopted this recipe, I never went back to making carbonara any other way.

Enjoy!

Step 1: Mise en place: ingredients and equipment

This recipe makes one serving.

Start by gathering your ingredients:

one serving of pasta
one egg
one or two slices of bacon, depending on how much bacon you want
pecorino or Parmesan cheese

You'll also need a fine grater, a pot for cooking the spaghetti, tongs for handling the food, and a skillet for cooking the bacon. You'll also need couple of ramekins for separating the egg ahead of time.

I personally like the flavor of pecorino cheese better than Parmasean (actually, I like using half grated pecorino, and half grated parma, but then this would be a five ingredient recipe), and I always grate my cheese as I need it; that crumbly pre-ground crap that passes for cheese in most supermarkets is gross. Ground cheese has the wrong texture; insist on grating your own if you're going to do this right. Life is too short to be eating gross pre-ground industrially processed cheese.

Comments

[mmartinez36]

...great taste!!! just seems so simple to cook Carbonara... I really study how the proper cooking of Carbonara... Thanks to Instructables! ...( to be continued...=))

[beehard44]

Tastes awesome even without cheese, but i believe it'll taste better with it.

[TrueItalian]

Try to blend with egg (don't separate egg, we use it entire) and cheese ( very well 50% reggiano 50% pecorino) also some milk, mix them very well and you have a cream (or sauce or as you called it XD),when your pasta is cooked mix together (I suggest to try with linguine pasta next time). For the bacon (in Italy pancetta) 2 soupspoon of olio e.v.o. (olio extravergine d'oliva) and cook as you described (hold the fat, in the photo isn' too much and also it serve to cook the egg sauce when you put it over your pasta) For pasta:there is a rule (10,100,1000 rule) 10 gr of salt for 100gr of pasta in1000 milliliter (1 litre) of water So you can't mistake ;) So in order: make the egg-cheese-milk sauce, then cook the pasta and make crispy the bacon,in the end mix pasta and sauce and now pour the bacon and the fat (do it very hot) over all, some ground pepper, mix again,eat. If you found it drink a falanghina or pinot grigio (or a white fizzy wine)
Let me know if you like it, sorry for my english...I'am italian XD
Best wishes from Rome :) xoxo

[smav]

In Milan we don't use pecorino: only parmesan or grana ;)
And we don't add milk, but we count one egg every 100g of pasta and one yolk (we say "a yolk for the pot" eheh).
We add a lots of pepper when the plate is finished.

GNAM GNAM!!

enjoy your meal! bye from Milan ;) ihihih

[gaudopippo]

i use some onions with half smoked bacon and half not

[TrueItalian]

de gustibus non disputandum est ;)

[smav]

In fact I was only comparing differences from various parts of Italy! :)

[Berkana]

Thank you for your suggestion. ^_^
The 10,100,1000 rule is very helpful.

[TrueItalian]

you are welcome ^^

[jpereira11]

looks good

[foxxtrot]

Note: Salmonella is bacterial, you can't "vaccinate" against it. They do treat chickens with antibiotics to kill of salmonella, and as you say, it's unlikely you'll get Salmonella from eggs, though pasteurization almost entirely eliminates that risk.

[Linda Allen]

I've been making a very similar version for 30+ years. After cooking the bacon, brown a chopped onion in the drippings. I mix the egg and cheese together in the serving dish, then add the spaghetti and toss to coat, then add the bacon and onion and a little of the drippings and toss to coat. Mmmmm. When heating a leftover the next day, I like to microwave it until it's crispy. Mmmmm!

[Screamo]

Bacon and eggs pasta? odd

[anthhyde]

I used this recipe. and since i was out of pasta i used ramen. It still came out great.

[mastermakoko]

greatt!!!!! ive been making it twice already this month!~

[c0lin]

I've got a college student spin on this recipe. Mine is made up of 3 main ingredients not including spices (no cheese, cheese is expensive). The egg isn't raw either, it's quickly added to the noodles after draining, while mixing the egg is cooked from the heat of the noodles and bacon and sticks to the noodles and bacon. Cheap, quick, and not made in a microwave.

[sole]

If it's not microwaved then how is it a college student spin xD

[j626no]

idk how i feel about the raw yoke though...other than that it looks delicious

[Berkana]

The raw yoke actually tastes pretty good on cheesy peppery pasta. Raw egg yoke is delicious; raw egg white is what grosses me out. If you try this, for the best taste make sure you separate the egg yoke very thoroughly so there's no coating of egg white on it.

[red-king]

raw egg white is like slime. =/ yoke is good though.

[Lafiel]

As u like. But do know that in Italy we beat the entire egg or do the exact opposite (sometimes we only use beaten yoke on the hot pasta totally discarding the white part).

[Lafiel]

your recipe is quite near to the original one, but you have to beat white and red egg all together (no raw red egg please u_u), then add salt and black pepper, drop it on the hot pasta at end.