Pasta Carbonara

This is probably one of my quickest dinners, and it never gets old. I hope you enjoy my pasta carbonara!

There’s no need for cream.

A proper carbonara doesn’t need cream, regardless of what you’ve read or been served. If you want to add that and go extra indulgent, that’s totally cool! But just some grated parmesan mixed with egg yolk will give you and extremely creamy and delicious sauce - it’s all you need! When I took these photos I had run out of peas, so I used some green beans instead! Just take it as some inspiration to show you that you can improvise with whatever you have at home and don’t need to be so rigid on rules or how things “should” be.

Pasta Carbonara

For 2 people

Prep time: 5 minutes | Cook time: 15 minutes

• 250g of tagliatelle, ideally fresh (double ideally, homemade. But I don’t alway take the time, so don’t expect you to either!)

• About 200g of pancetta, I love cubetti (chopped into small cubes)

• Half a cup of grated parmesan

• 1 egg yolk

• A pinch of salt and pepper

• Optional: a cup of mushrooms, peas or other greens (some green beans or bits of broccoli or asparagus)

Instructions

Mix together the egg yolk (make sure to keep the egg white for breakfast the next morning or maybe some baking!) and grated parmesan in a small bowl, using a fork. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Put to one side.

In a frying pan, gently fry the pancetta, and if you are adding mushrooms, do those at the same time. Note that most pancetta or bacon is so fatty that you need absolutely no oil or butter in this pan! I like my pancetta pretty crispy, but fry it to your liking. When it is done, place the pancetta on a few sheets of kitchen roll and let that absorb some of the excess fat.

Cook the pasta (I definitely prefer fresh tagliatelle for this) in a saucepan for the time it says on the cooking instructions. I’f you’ve made your own from scratch, it’s probably about 5 minutes, test around this mark and see if it’s cooked to your liking. If you are adding any frozen greens like peas, add them in at the very beginning. If they are fresh, drop them in at the end just to warm them up.

Before you get rid of the pasta water, tip a bit (two/three tablespoons) of it in to the frying pan you used for the pancetta. Then put the tagliatelle in a colander and splash a bit of olive oil in and mix well. You don’t need to drain the pasta too much, it’s nice if it’s still a bit wet.

Add the pasta in to the frying pan with the bit of pasta water that you tipped in, add the pancetta (and mushroom) back in from the kitchen roll and mix well. Don’t put the heat back on, we’re only working with the heat from the freshly cooked pasta now. It can’t be too hot as we now add in the egg and parmesan mix, and if the food is still cooking, the egg will curdle.

Mix the sauce well with the pasta and serve up immediately. Top with more parmesan or a leaf or two of basil!

Did you make the carbonara? Share on Instagram and tag @TheFromScratchBody and hashtag #TheFromScratchBody so I don’t miss it!