Pasta Carbonara: A Quick and Easy Recipe With Eggs and Bacon
Linguine alla Carbonara
This Original Italian Recipe has Been in My Family for Generations.
This is a simple and delicious dish, ready in only 15 minutes. If you like eggs and bacon, you'll love this recipe.
The typical carbonara is usually made with spaghetti, but you can make it with many other kinds of pasta; some ideas are: linguine, rotini, bow ties, or penne.
Short noodles, like penne, are much easier for kids (and adults) to grab with the fork, and much less messy to eat than some other noodles like spaghetti.
Penne alla Carbonara
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 1 pound Penne
- 4 Eggs, whole
- 8 Slices of smoked bacon, diced
- 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Black pepper
- 4 tbsp Heavy cream, optional
Penne Carbonara with Ingredients
Instructions
- Bring 12 cups (3 liters) of water to a boil, then add 1 tbsp of salt. Cook the penne in the boiling water, according to cooking time on the package.
- In a bowl, whisk the eggs, Parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper. For a creamier sauce, add the heavy cream (optional).
- Dice the bacon. Cook the bacon in a pan with 4 tablespoons of water on medium heat, for about 10 minutes, or until it gets a golden color.
- When the pasta is cooked, drain it using a colander, and immediately pour the drained pasta back in the same hot pot it came from. (Tip: To keep the sauce creamier, keep bout 1/3 of a cup the pasta's cooking water.)
- Keep the pot on the medium heat stove for 1-2 minutes. While stirring, add the bacon with all its cooking juices, and add the egg mix. Keep stirring for a couple of minutes, this will allow the creamy egg sauce to cook.
- Serve hot. You may add some grated Parmesan cheese on top of each plate. Enjoy! :)
Penne alla Carbonara Served with Freshly Grated Parmigiano Cheese
Bring 12 cups (3 liters) of water to a boil, then salt with 1 tbsp of salt.
Adding Soluble Fibers to the Pasta Sauce
Penne Carbonara is a very nutritious dish, a great go-to recipe for those occasions when you haven't much time to cook, but are very hungry and in the mood for a satisfying dish.
This is the true original recipe from Italy, and, as per tradition, it has no veggies in the ingredients.
Therefore the only thing missing in this dish to become a well balanced complete meal are fibers. Since I am a big fun of veggies and of complete meals, I often add soluble fibers to the seasoning mix, while I'm beating the eggs.
This way I make sure that on top of all the vitamins, minerals, calcium, carbs, and fat that this dish provides, there are also the ever-useful fibers.
Original Italian Carbonara Recipe
The carbonara recipe presented here is the one that my grandma Antonia used to make for me when I was a teenager.
Grandma lived with us, and on summer Sundays I would usually sleep until noon or even 1 pm.
I remember her smile when she came to wake me up, sit at the feet of my bed, and ask if I wanted carbonara for lunch. It was just the two of us during summer.
So I had no breakfast on Sundays, I was going straight from sleeping status to sharing a yummy carbonara with grandma.
I Learned this Recipe from My Grandma that Lived with Us. This Is Where I Grew Up.
Fossò VE, Italy - The little town near Venice where I grew up. The carbonara recipe is from my Italian family tradition.
Questions & Answers
© 2012 Robie Benve
Comments
- AUTHOR
Our whole family loves this carbonara, I hope you enjoy it too! :)
Cabonara is the best!! This recipe sounds great!
- AUTHOR
Buon Appetito! :)
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you tried it and loved it!
This looks amazing! And I happen to have some bacon in the fridge... Might need to make this tomorrow. Voted up :)
- AUTHOR
Hi Chefmancave, Spinach or peppers, mmmhh, sounds very interesting, especially the spinach - knowing my family. Thanks a lot for the suggestion!
Robie...I agree. A touch of veggies is perfect for this dish. I doesn't have to be overwhelmingly but just some spinach would be fabulous. I will try this with julienne cut green peppers. I am thinking the color of the green peppers will make this dish visually delightful while the crunchiness of the peppers would make it a culinary adventure.
- AUTHOR
Hi Heather, great to hear that you also eat this often and love it, it's my favorite quick meal to cook and eat, and always makes my kids happy. :)
I have to try with the tri-color rotini, sounds yummy. Thanks!
My husband and I eat this dish about once a week! We just have it with the pasta, egg, and parmesan cheese. I got addicted to this dish back in college and now ten years later I will downright crave it late at night. We make this whenever we have left over pasta but I prefer it with the penne since the little bits of scrambled egg can get trapped inside and make for yummy bites. I'm so happy to see someone else also loves this dish. Oh and I also love this dish when we use tri-color rotini since it adds another dimension of flavor from the veggie-noodles. Voted up of course! :)
- AUTHOR
Hi Crystal, thanks a lot, hope you try it - but I warn you, you may get hooked like me. I love this dish! :)
Oh my I think I want to drown in this! Yummy. Voted up!
- AUTHOR
That's wonderful to hear Angie! My kids love it too, and the best part is that it's a very nutritious dish, and keeps them full for a while.
Thanks for leaving the comment! :)
I tried this recipe today and my family loved it, children asked for seconds and thirds! it's a keeper!
- AUTHOR
VengefulArt, you are right, breakfast pasta could be its middle name. :) I never tried with turkey bacon, but I'm pretty sure it would be delicious as well.
- AUTHOR
Arlene, no worries! Hope you enjoy it when nobody is watching or just the same in front of a crowd. Buon appetito! :)
This sounds like breakfast pasta! i love it! Do you think it wiuld work the same with turkey bacon?
Auugggggghhhhhhhh! You're killing me with those calories, Robie, but I will give it a try when no one's watching me eat over the stove.
- AUTHOR
Arlene, I'm sure you'll love it! Though it's not the optimal light-snack to eat after midnight! ;) Since you are at it, you may even add a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream and make it even more delicious! Or, to stick with things we all have in the kitchen, 2 tbsp of milk can be a good alternative.
Thanks for the great feedback! Ciao
Oh, YUM. Something so easy and delicious with ingredients that are already in my kitchen. I can see myself making this dish when I'm all alone around midnight. This is my time--when everyone is asleep. Thank you for this Hub! Voted up and everything else. Bookmarked!
18