Garlic, bacon and lots of pepper. Secrets of carbonara pasta from an Italian chef

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Updated: Vikulia

07/02/2014 Cooking time: 30 min

The classic Carbonara with bacon can also be made in a new way. Use your imagination and use new ingredients. Bacon Carbonara is a hearty Italian dish made with pasta, eggs, cheese and bacon.

The benefits and harms of the dish

The paste contains many nutrients: vitamins and mineral compounds necessary for the human body, as well as plant fiber. Chicken yolk, which is an integral ingredient in carbonara, contains vitamins E and D, choline, lecithin, and folic acid.

People suffering from heart and vascular diseases are not recommended to consume the dish in large quantities, since bacon, which contains a lot of cholesterol, is added when preparing the pasta. In addition, abuse of this product can lead to intestinal upset. Considering these factors, pasta in cream sauce with the addition of meat products should not be given to children.

Description of preparation:

Carbonara with bacon is a very filling dish.
Tomatoes will refresh it and add sourness to the creamy taste. It is better to choose fettuccine or spaghetti pasta. Pancetta can be replaced with your favorite bacon. Parmesan, of course, is very necessary for this dish, but if you suddenly don’t have this cheese on hand, you can replace it with hard cheese. Bon appetit! Purpose: For breakfast / Hearty breakfast / For lunch / For dinner Main ingredient: Meat / Vegetables / Tomato / Offal / Bacon / Pasta / Cherry Dish: Hot dishes / Carbonara

How to make carbonara with cream and bacon?

To prepare four servings you will need:

• 250-300 and 120 grams of spaghetti and bacon, respectively;
• 50-70 grams of hard cheese;
• half a glass of heavy cream (20%-35%);
• 4 fresh chicken yolks;
• a pair of garlic cloves;

Add spices and fresh herbs to taste.

Step-by-step preparation with photos

Actions:

1. First, pour water into the pan and bring to a boil. When the water boils, place the spaghetti in the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes less than indicated on the package.

2. Cut the bacon into oblong pieces. Chop the peeled garlic using a knife or garlic chopper.

3. Place chopped bacon in a heated frying pan. Fry for about two minutes.

4. Then add chopped garlic cloves and cook for another couple of minutes. Sprinkle the meat product with washed and finely chopped herbs, add pepper, mix thoroughly. Remove from stove. After this, in a separate bowl, mix egg yolks, cream, grated cheese, salt, and pepper to prepare the sauce.

5. When the spaghetti is ready, drain the water.

6. Add pasta to bacon, stir, pour sauce over mixture. Simmer for a few minutes.

Serve hot; you can put herbs and finely grated cheese on top as a decoration.

100 g of the dish contains 16.7 proteins, 16 g of fat, 39 g of carbohydrates, 341 kcal.

Video from an Italian chef:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUSHXuCugdk

Carbonara with bacon and cream: recipe with photos

Since we have decided that our recipe is only an imitation of the classic carbonara pasta, we will also use garlic to prepare it. It will add flavor to the dish. The quantity of products is indicated for 3 servings.

Ingredients:

• spaghetti – 300g;
• hard cheese – 50g;
• garlic – 2-3 cloves;
• eggs – 2 pcs;
• cream 10% - 200ml;
• bacon – 100-120g;
• cooking salt for spaghetti – 0.5 tsp;
• vegetable oil – 2 tbsp.

How to make pasta carbonara at home

1. First, let's start preparing the products, since the process itself is quick and there will be no time to be distracted there. We measure out the spaghetti. Typically, one serving requires 100 grams of paste. Peel the garlic. If the cloves are large, then two are enough; if they are small, we take three.
2. Place a pan of water, bring it to a boil, add salt and lower the pasta. You can’t break it, we put it vertically in a bunch. Gradually it will sink to the bottom on its own. Cook over moderate heat for the time indicated on the package.

3. In the meantime, cut the bacon into pieces (you can use long “noodles”) and remove the skin. It's tough and we don't need it in the dish.

4. Cut the garlic cloves in half lengthwise. Heat oil in a frying pan, preferably olive oil, and add garlic. Fry it for 1 minute. Then we remove it, it has done its job - it flavored the oil. He is no longer needed.

5. Place the bacon in the pan and let it cook, stirring occasionally.

6. At the same time, pour the cream into a bowl and break the eggs into it.

7. Three cheeses on a fine grater.

8. Add the creamy egg mixture and beat with a whisk.

9. Drain the water from the pasta, leaving a little, no more than 1/3 cup. This water may be needed if the sauce turns out thick, thicker than desired.
10. When the bacon is fried and the pasta is cooked, remove the frying pan from the stove, put the spaghetti in it, mix it with the bacon and the most important thing begins - the carbonara sauce.

11. Pour the mixture of cream, cheese and eggs into the pan. Immediately begin mixing quickly and intensively. The temperature will cause the mixture to thicken and you want it to cover the entire paste. If you feel that there is not enough sauce, add a little hot water in which the pasta was cooked and stir vigorously again.

Immediately place on plates (don’t forget that they should be warm) and serve. You can sprinkle a little grated cheese on top and garnish with basil leaves. Let's run to the table!

Author: Irina

Cooking method

It's best to start cooking the pasta and sauce at the same time to respect the finer points of the Italian dish and to finish cooking the carbonara on the warm pasta.

1. The first step is to put a pan of slightly salted water on the stove for spaghetti; if desired, you can add a spoonful of olive oil. During the preparation of the sauce, you need to control the moment of boiling water in order to lower the pasta into it. You need to cook spaghetti a couple of minutes less than the manufacturer recommends. If you follow the traditions of Italian chefs, the best pasta is the one that is slightly undercooked rather than overcooked.
2. The bacon must be cut into thin strips and fried in a frying pan with butter until crispy. It is important not to dry out the meat; it is better to use medium heat. If you decide to add garlic for a spicy taste, then it is also fried with bacon.
3. Now you need to prepare a delicate sauce base. Beat raw egg yolks into a deep bowl, add salt and sprinkle with black pepper. The mixture must be thoroughly beaten with a fork. Parmesan cheese should be finely grated and added to the egg mixture, stirring the base. You should leave a small part of the grated Parmesan for later to sprinkle on the finished dish.
4. You only need to drain the finished spaghetti without rinsing or oiling it. Place the hot pasta in a bowl with the sauce and stir. After this, you need to add bacon to the dish and mix again.
5. The carbonara pasta is almost ready, you can put it on plates and sprinkle the remaining chopped Parmesan cheese on top. You should eat spaghetti with sauce immediately after cooking, while it is hot.

Secrets of making Carbonara pasta

1. The main rule is to undercook the spaghetti. The “al dente” or “to the tooth” condition is considered ideal for pasta with sauce. The approximate cooking time for pasta in boiling water is about 4 minutes.
2. The second rule for preparing Carbonara is the ratio of pasta and eggs. For every 100 grams of spaghetti there should be one chicken yolk.
3. The taste of the dish is determined by the choice of smoked meats. The classic recipe uses guanciale - smoked pork cheeks. This rare product is successfully replaced with thinly sliced ​​bacon.
4. The correct sauce can only be achieved by using Parmigiano Reggiano (or Parmesan) and Pecorino cheeses. It is better to take both cheeses in equal proportions, but to make the sauce softer and creamier, it is better to take 2-3 times more Parmigiano than Pecorino.
5. It is important to observe the sequence and cooking time of the dish. We'll tell you what to pay attention to in a step-by-step classic recipe for Carbonara pasta.

Pasta carbonara: step-by-step recipe with photos

Pasta carbonara: recipe with ham

What we need:

• fresh mushrooms – 200g;
• bacon – 150g;
• pasta – 200g;
• cream - 100ml;
• butter – 50g;
• vegetable oil – 3 tbsp;
• eggs – 2 pcs;
• cheese – 30g;
• salt;
• freshly ground black pepper.

How to cook pasta carbonara with ham

1. Place a pan of water for the pasta.
2. Cut the mushrooms (I used champignons) into small pieces.

3. Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan and add butter. It is good to fry mushrooms in this mixture. Heat and add champignons. Fry, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated from them and they are slightly browned.

4. Cut the ham (I used boiled and smoked) into bars and add it to the mushrooms.

5. While they are frying, place the pasta in boiling salted water. As for salt, do not forget that the ham is salty and therefore you need to put less salt in the water than usual.

6. When the ham is fried, add cream to it and heat it. Do not bring to a boil! It will curl up, we just need heating. If they heat up before the pasta is cooked, it is better to turn it on and then warm it up slightly.

7. Drain the water from the pasta, transfer the contents of the pan into the pan with the pasta and stir.

8. The turn of the eggs has come, break both of them into the pan at once and mix very quickly. The residual heat from the food will thicken the eggs, and so will the sauce.

Place the carbonara and ham on plates, sprinkle with grated cheese and black pepper from the mill. Serve immediately.

That's all. All that remains is to wish you bon appetit!

In conclusion: try cooking with chicken (breast) or shrimp and get a new, but also original and tasty dish.

Author: Victoria S.

Save recipe in Cookbook 3

You can use any bacon for carbonara pasta - whatever you like and what suits your wallet. To be honest, I made carbonara with just smoked lard with layers, even with ordinary smoked ham - the main thing was that the smoked notes were present.

How to cook

Carbonara is a very fast food, says Buddy Valastro, and it's great. By the time the pasta is cooked, you have everything ready for the sauce.

Fry bacon and garlic

Important!

It is best to stir with a wooden spoon or spatula. You can use regular bacon or prosciutto. Cut it into small pieces. Chop the garlic, but not very finely. Pour some olive oil into the wok. It doesn't really matter what kind of oil you use. Any will do.

Heat oil, fry garlic and bacon. The bacon is fried until golden brown - the more it is fried, the tastier it turns out. “Garlic is usually fried until soft. But I like it to stay a little springy,” explains Valastro.

Boil the pasta

When cooking pasta, add more salt to the water. The water should taste like the ocean. And the pasta is cooked until “al dente”, which means “to the tooth”, that is, when you taste it, your teeth should feel the elasticity of the paste. It is impossible to say exactly how long spaghetti takes to cook in minutes. You have to try all the time.

Make the sauce

The yolks are beaten, then they need to be peppered. Pepper - don't spare it. Carbonara is a spicy dish, the taste of pepper should be felt well. But there is no need to put salt in the sauce. Because we put finely grated cheese in it. I don't put any herbs in carbonara; it's the simplest, most classic version of the dish.

Article on the topic

Pasta: varieties and methods of preparation. Infographic And I never add cream to the sauce. Yes, they also turn out delicious, but this is a completely different dish.

A little trick: add a little pasta water to the sauce. The hot broth will not only dilute the thick sauce, but thanks to it the yolks will also cook. So our sauce will no longer be completely raw.

Mix all

When the pasta is ready, add it to the sauce. Of course, drain the water. The hot pasta will melt the cheese and the yolks will be completely cooked.

NB! Italians never rinse spaghetti after boiling. For them this is blasphemy (editor's note).

After this, the pasta and sauce are placed in a wok with bacon. Stir and season with a pinch of nutmeg.