Pasta Carbonara (Amalfi Coast Recipe) - Tastefully Grace (2024)

FAQs

What is the golden rule of cooking a carbonara? ›

Whisk Like You Mean It

You're using more egg yolks than whites here, which is what makes carbonara so rich and luxurious. But there's still two eggs-worth of whites in there. Whisking your eggs so that the whites are completely incorporated into the yolks will give your sauce a more uniform texture.

What not to put in Spaghetti Carbonara? Don't put garlic, cream, milk or butter. It is not needed. It is fine if you want to make a dish with those ingredients, but if you want to learn how to make this dish correctly, use only pecorino, eggs/egg yolks, black pepper, guanciale, and pasta water.

There might be light variations in the quantities and preparation steps, but the real Carbonara has only 6 simple ingredients: water, pasta, guanciale, eggs, pecorino, pepe. Here's my recipe! well, the first and only trick is related to the ingredients: always use high quality Guanciale and Pecorino and fresh eggs.

A sparkling wine would be good, though the “safest” match is a white wine, perhaps from the center of Italy to evoke the dish's geographical origin. Rosé wines can also pair well, especially those from Abruzzo and Lake Garda, but be careful with reds, and avoid anything that is too tannic.

The Italian version doesn't use cream or ham. It is made with pancetta (pork belly meat that is salt cured, also referred to as Italian bacon), Parmigiano Reggiano or pecorino romano cheese, eggs, and black pepper—called the basics.

Cream is not used in most Italian recipes, with some exceptions. However, it is often employed in other countries. Similarly, garlic is found in some recipes, but mostly outside Italy.

What distinguishes carbonara from other pasta dishes is its technique of combining eggs, hard cheese, cured pork, and black pepper into a rich, silky sauce. This recipe calls for raw eggs that are gently cooked by the hot sauce. If you prefer, you can use pasteurized eggs instead.

Because in the traditional recipe there is no garlic, if you add it you will lower quality of a very good food. Why is there no garlic in carbonara? Because it's an Italian dish, not an Italian-American dish, and Italian cooking does not use garlic as heavily as Italian-American cuisine.

A certain softness to the alcohol content is necessary, even for sparkling wines. The "safest" carbonara consort is a white wine, perhaps from central Italy, to correspond with the geographical origin of the dish. Rosé wines also pair well, especially those from Abruzzo and Lake Garda.

What alcohol pairs with carbonara? ›

Italian carbonara is famously rich, combining pancetta or guanciale (cured pork jowl), egg yolks and cheese.

Yes. The heat of the pasta and its cooking water warms the eggs just enough to change the combination of eggs, cheese, pasta water and fat from your guanciale into a delicious smooth sauce. If your pasta is too hot, it will cook the eggs, and you'll get curdled eggs and cheese on your pasta instead of carbonara sauce.

Traditional carbonara sauce is made with whole eggs, not just the yolks. However, some recipes do call for just yolks. In the traditional recipe, the eggs are beaten together with grated Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper, and sometimes a bit of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Taste.com.au Food Director, Amira Georgy, confirmed this, saying: “Traditionally, carbonara sauce contains no cream, just eggs and cheese. The eggs and cheese are added to the hot pasta and tossed together until a silky sauce forms.”