Place eggs, egg yolk and ½ cup of each cheese into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk together and set aside.
Warm medium-sized skillet on moderate-high heat. Add butter and melt. Add the garlic and chili flakes followed by the guanciale. Toss everything in the skillet and cook for about 8 minutes until the fat renders and the edges of the guanciale get slightly crispy. While the guanciale is cooking, prepare the pasta.
Fill a 6-quart pasta pot ⅔ full with water. Add salt and stir to dissolve. Bring to a boil and add pasta, stirring occasionally, until al dente.
Reserve one cup of pasta liquid before draining pasta.
Transfer cooked guanciale and 2-3 tablespoons of pan drippings to a small bowl.
Assemble pasta: Drain pasta and return it to pot. Stir in the guanciale and drippings. Add about ½ cup of the pasta water followed by the egg and cheese mixture. Stir swiftly to combine everything in the pot and create a creamy sauce. Add more pasta water for a thinner sauce or more of the remaining cheese for a thicker one.
To serve: Transfer a quantity of the pasta into soup or pasta bowls. Add bits of guanciale and extra sauce. Garnish with a sprinkle of remaining grated cheeses, chili flakes, parsley and black pepper. Serve immediately.
Linguine Carbonara
Ingredients
1 pound long noodle pasta
16 cups water
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup guanciale, cut into ¼-inch cubes
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
½ teaspoon chili flakes
3 eggs + 1 yolk, room temperature
1 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
1 cup Pecorino Romano, grated
½ cup pasta water, more if desired
To garnish:
remaining grated Parmesan and Pecorino
sprinkle chili flakes
sprinkle chopped parsley
sprinkle black pepper
Directions
Place eggs, egg yolk and ½ cup of each cheese into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk together and set aside.
Warm medium-sized skillet on moderate-high heat. Add butter and melt. Add the garlic and chili flakes followed by the guanciale. Toss everything in the skillet and cook for about 8 minutes until the fat renders and the edges of the guanciale get slightly crispy. While the guanciale is cooking, prepare the pasta.
Fill a 6-quart pasta pot ⅔ full with water. Add salt and stir to dissolve. Bring to a boil and add pasta, stirring occasionally, until al dente.
Reserve one cup of pasta liquid before draining pasta.
Transfer cooked guanciale and 2-3 tablespoons of pan drippings to a small bowl.
Assemble pasta: Drain pasta and return it to pot. Stir in the guanciale and drippings. Add about ½ cup of the pasta water followed by the egg and cheese mixture. Stir swiftly to combine everything in the pot and create a creamy sauce. Add more pasta water for a thinner sauce or more of the remaining cheese for a thicker one.
To serve: Transfer a quantity of the pasta into soup or pasta bowls. Add bits of guanciale and extra sauce. Garnish with a sprinkle of remaining grated cheeses, chili flakes, parsley and black pepper. Serve immediately.
Linguine Carbonara
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Al dente linguine noodles stirred into a creamy sauce of egg, cured Italian pork, Parmesan and Pecorino…
Here’s the LINGUINE CARBONARA recipe you need to make right now!
We’re not joking about the “make right now” business. This LINGUINE CARBONARA is truly remarkable. Looking at the photos of the finished delicious dishes, you might be thinking, “Who’s he kidding, I’m not a master chef!” Guess what, neither am I! But I certainly feel like one every time I make this delicious pasta main course.
You’re here because a freshly prepared pasta dish is often your go-to when gathering with friends and family. Good news! We’ve got lots of them. Once you’ve mastered this LINGUINE CARBONARA, try your hand at our vegetarian version made with WILD MUSHROOMS. Other popular pasta recipes include our TOMATO CHICKEN PASTA BAKE and MEAT LASAGNA. We bet you’ll also love our SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS, our classic MAC AND CHEESE and this TUNA CASSEROLE. Yup, we like serving pasta too!
Now let’s return to this beauty. Time to make LINGUINE CARBONARA:
INGREDIENTS
This photo of the ingredients should give you a sense of where this storied recipe will take you. Interestingly, this stellar recipe is all about that classic combination of cheese, meat, egg and pasta. More about each in a moment. One important thing to remember; make this dish with superior ingredients. Look for aged and fully ripened cheese, artisanal handmade pasta, organic farm-fresh eggs and a smoked meat cured without the use of additives. Prepare to taste the difference.
MEAT
Guanciale is a cured pork cheek that’s considered an Italian delicacy. The meat is rubbed with salt, a combination of black and red peppers, thyme, fennel and sometimes garlic. It’s then cured for three weeks where it loses a third of its original weight. Best thing is that when it’s fried up for this recipe, the fat melts away and gives a ton of flavour to the dish.
We suggest calling ahead to a butcher or delicatessen specializing in Italian meats to ensure availability. Reality check: lets say you’re struggling to locate a nice chunk of this choice meat – make the recipe using strip bacon. A smoked, thick-cut bacon always does the job in a pinch.
SAY CHEESE, TWICE!
I’m sure every lover of cheesy pasta out there is jumping for joy. This recipe calls for two exceptionally rich and flavourful cheeses that are always paired together in a carbonara recipe. The first is PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO, a cheese made from cow’s milk, whose high glutamate levels give this favourite cheese a strong umami taste. The second, PECORINO ROMANO, is made from sheep’s milk and is known for its granular, sharp flavours. We selected an aged Pecorino (one year old) which grated up perfectly for this use.
PASTA
Carbonara is traditionally made with a long noodle. Check out this explanation provided by our friends on Wiki; although various shapes of pasta can be used, the raw egg can only cook properly with a shape that has a sufficiently large ratio of surface area to volume, such as the long, thin types fettuccine, linguine, or spaghetti. Although we used linguine for this story, you should feel free to make it your own and use your favourite long noodle.
EGGS AND CHEESE
One of the prep steps for this pasta recipe is to whisk together eggs and the grated cheese. However we think the next step is the best where we to stir this luxurious mixture into the hot pasta to create a creamy, cheesy sauce. For best results, use the freshest eggs you can find and furthermore, have them at room temperature before you begin.
PAN FRY
All you bacon lovers out there are going to love frying up the guanciale in a hot skillet. To make the appetizing aromas filling your kitchen even more memorable, we also added a clove of garlic and a sprinkle of chili flakes into the mix. The cured pork renders in the pan and as the fat melts away, the guanciale picks up a little of that spiced garlic flavouring – super yummy! TIP: When gathering up the bacon bits from the skillet, spoon two or three tablespoons of the fat up too. More fat = more flavour!
ASSEMBLE
Follow the instructions listed below for best results, however, let me set the scene on how this goes down. Firstly, once the guanciale and pasta are cooked, set up a kind of assembly space on your work surface. Secondly, have at the ready the egg and cheese mixture, the cooked guanciale, extra cheese, and perhaps the most important ingredient, a cup of the pasta water. Thirdly, place the drained noodles onto your work surface, stir in the guanciale, the pan drippings, the hot, salty pasta water and then the egg mixture stirring swiftly to create a rich creamy pasta. This dish is famous for good reason – the entire process is brilliant!
ENJOY
There’s nothing extra that needs to be done to enjoy LINGUINE CARBONARA. I serve it with a sprinkle of extra cheese, chili flakes, chopped parsley and a bit of freshly cracked black pepper. Truth – every time I’ve served this meal, and I mean every single time, those thoroughly enjoying it usually only manage to utter single words between mouthfuls; “Amazing!” “Wow!” “Delicious!” Oh, and they’ve often asked for the recipe too – now I’m finally happy to oblige!
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Ingredients
1 pound long noodle pasta
16 cups water
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup guanciale, cut into ¼-inch cubes
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
½ teaspoon chili flakes
3 eggs + 1 yolk, room temperature
1 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
1 cup Pecorino Romano, grated
½ cup pasta water, more if desired
To garnish:
remaining grated Parmesan and Pecorino
sprinkle chili flakes
sprinkle chopped parsley
sprinkle black pepper
Directions
Place eggs, egg yolk and ½ cup of each cheese into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk together and set aside.
Warm medium-sized skillet on moderate-high heat. Add butter and melt. Add the garlic and chili flakes followed by the guanciale. Toss everything in the skillet and cook for about 8 minutes until the fat renders and the edges of the guanciale get slightly crispy. While the guanciale is cooking, prepare the pasta.
Fill a 6-quart pasta pot ⅔ full with water. Add salt and stir to dissolve. Bring to a boil and add pasta, stirring occasionally, until al dente.
Reserve one cup of pasta liquid before draining pasta.
Transfer cooked guanciale and 2-3 tablespoons of pan drippings to a small bowl.
Assemble pasta: Drain pasta and return it to pot. Stir in the guanciale and drippings. Add about ½ cup of the pasta water followed by the egg and cheese mixture. Stir swiftly to combine everything in the pot and create a creamy sauce. Add more pasta water for a thinner sauce or more of the remaining cheese for a thicker one.
To serve: Transfer a quantity of the pasta into soup or pasta bowls. Add bits of guanciale and extra sauce. Garnish with a sprinkle of remaining grated cheeses, chili flakes, parsley and black pepper. Serve immediately.
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