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.

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

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).

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.

Well, the canonical answer would be: "No, we do not use cream in our dishes. Cream covers the flavors and makes the dishes heavy. It's better to use better quality ingredients, if a dish isn't creamy enough it means that you don't know how to cook it, not that there is a need of cream ".

You'll want to make sure they're at room temperature before you add them to the pan. To make carbonara, the eggs are whisked thoroughly with the other sauce ingredients before tossing it with the pasta. If you mix cold eggs directly into the hot sauce, they can seize and form lumps.

How do I make sure my eggs don't scramble in carbonara? ›

Using tongs, add the spaghetti to the frying pan and let some of the pasta water come into the pan. The pan should sizzle as you add the spaghetti and the water. (*This helps coat the spaghetti and gives a creaminess. It also cools the pan down so you won't get scrambled eggs in the next steps).

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.

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.

The sauce is made with raw egg yolks and is cooked by using only the heat from the cooked pasta. Some people have concerns about the safety of this dish due to the possibility of egg yolks be contaminated with salmonella. In fact, the hot cooked pasta does fully cook the egg. I hope that this answers your question.