Recipe

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

4 servings · prep 10 min · cook 15 min

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• lunch
• dinner
• italian

Authored by the maintainer; standard Roman method.

Ingredients

the pasta

• 400 g dried spaghetti (bronze-die if possible) — Puglia wheat farm
• Coarse sea salt for the pasta water — Trapani salt pans

the sauce

• 150 g guanciale, cut into batons (1 cm × 5 mm) — Parma pork producer
• 4 large egg yolks + 1 whole egg
• 80 g Pecorino Romano, very finely grated
• 2 tsp black pepper, freshly cracked coarse — Kerala pepper estate

Method

1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Salt it heavily — it should taste like the sea.
2. Render the guanciale in a wide, cold pan over medium-low heat until golden and crisp at the edges. 6–8 minutes. Pull the pan off the heat and let it sit. · 8 min
3. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks, whole egg, grated pecorino, and most of the black pepper into a thick paste. Reserve a little cheese and pepper for finishing.
4. Cook the spaghetti until 1 minute short of al dente. Reserve a mug of pasta water before draining. · 9 min
5. Add the hot pasta to the pan with the guanciale and its fat. Toss off the heat for 30 seconds — the pan should be warm but not searing.
6. Pour the egg mixture over the pasta and toss vigorously, adding splashes of reserved pasta water until the sauce is glossy and clings to every strand. Should take 30–60 seconds.
7. Plate immediately. Top with the reserved pecorino and a final crack of black pepper.

Notes

No cream. No garlic. No onion. No parsley. The sauce is built from the
pasta water, the eggs, the cheese, and the rendered fat from the
guanciale — emulsified by heat that is just enough but never too much.

The single failure mode: scrambled eggs. Two prevention rules:
(1) pull the guanciale pan off the heat before adding the pasta,
(2) keep tossing the moment the eggs hit. Heat that doesn't move
cooks; heat that moves emulsifies.

Pancetta substitution: acceptable but loses fat — add a tablespoon of
olive oil to the rendering step if using pancetta.