How to make the best spaghetti carbonara from scratch with only five ingredients. This homemade carbonara is made with nutty parmigiano reggiano cheese, pancetta, spaghetti, creamy egg yolks, and black pepper.
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time20 minutesmins
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: carbonara, pasta carbonara, spaghetti carbonara
Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil over high heat. Add a generous amount of salt to the pot. Stir the spaghetti into the boiling water. Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water. This is starchy water that adds flavor to the carbonara sauce.
While pasta is cooking, cook the pancetta, guancile, or bacon until cooked through. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
In a bowl, stir together egg yolks, egg, and parmigiano reggiano cheese until combined. Stir in pepper.
Once pasta is cooked, drain, and then toss spaghetti with pancetta (or guancile). Once it is tossed, ladle in the cheese/egg mixture, a little at a time. If needed, stir in 1/2 cup of pasta water to coat until the mixture coats the pasta.
Serve with freshly cracked black pepper and freshly grated cheese.
Notes
I suggest freshly grating the parmigiano reggiano cheese. I don't suggest using packaged grated parmesan cheese for this recipe because it doesn't easily melt into the sauce.
Use chopped, small pieces of pancetta, guanciale, or high-quality bacon.
When pasta is almost finished cooking, remove 1 cup of the starchy pasta water. You will only use 1/2 cup of pasta water in the carbonara but if you want a thinner sauce, you can add more.