Dinner · Italian
Proper carbonara
No cream, no peas, no arguments. Eggs, cheese and pasta water do all the work.
- Start to finish
- 20 min
- Hands-on
- 11 min
- In the fridge
- 1 day
- Freezes
- Not well
Contains gluten, dairy, eggs
Ingredients
4 portions- 400gSpaghetti
- 130gPancetta cubes
- 1 cloveGarlic
- 4Eggs
- 60gItalian-style hard cheese, finely grated
Plus salt, pepper and water.
Method
- 1
Bring a big pan of salted water to the boil. Finely grate the cheese, then beat the eggs with most of it and lots of black pepper.
- 2
Cook the spaghetti for a minute less than the packet says, usually about 9 minutes.
10 min, mostly hands-off
- 3
Meanwhile, put the pancetta and the garlic clove, bashed but whole, in a large cold frying pan. Cook over a medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, until crisp and the fat has run. Fish out the garlic and take the pan off the heat.
- 4
Scoop out a mugful of pasta water, then drain the spaghetti and tip it into the pancetta pan. Leave it a minute to cool slightly, then pour in the eggs with a good splash of the water and toss hard until the sauce turns silky. Add more water if it looks tight, and finish with the rest of the cheese.
On the day
Straight away, in warm bowls, with more black pepper. It does not wait and it does not reheat, so cook what you will eat.
Cook’s tip
Go easy on the salt in the pasta water. The pancetta and cheese are salty already, and the water ends up in the sauce.