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Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Roman pasta at its most uncompromising. Eggs, guanciale, pecorino, pepper. That is the dish. No cream, no peas, no chicken, no shortcuts.
Total time
20 minutes
Serves
2
Difficulty
Easy with the right ingredients
Origin
Rome, postwar trattorias
Spaghetti, the right brand matters less than the cook
0%
Guanciale, never pancetta, never bacon
Pecorino romano, never parmigiano
Eggs, yolks only for the silkiest sauce
Black pepper, cracked coarse from the mill
The single biggest failure mode is scrambled eggs. Pull the pan off the heat before adding the egg and cheese mixture, and toss continuously. The residual heat cooks the sauce to a velvet. If you see curds, the pan was too hot.
