Or, “A Heretical Pretender to Pasta alla Carbonara”
Jump to RecipeOk listen, I know that this is definitely not the most traditional carbonara you’ll ever eat (it has shallots. Heresy, I know). However, it is mighty tasty and pretty easy and approved by my Roman significant other. In fact, I might have stolen his recipe…
What makes this carbonara easy? It uses whole eggs, so no yolk-separating required! Using the formula of “one egg per person plus an extra for the pan” ensures a creamy result despite using whole eggs, making this perfect for a weeknight dinner. I don’t know about you, but you won’t see me separating egg yolks on a Wednesday night!
What else makes this carbonara a relaxed sort of carbonara? It’s flexible! No guanciale? Use unsmoked pancetta! You could even use bacon if you really wanted to, but the smoked flavour tends to overpower the carbonara. In any case, I’m sure true Romans are willing to make allowances for those of us without easy access to some ingredients (Right? Except for the bacon, maybe).
Conclusion? I’m willing to defend my carbonara to the death. Why? Because traditional or not, it’s delicious! Trust me (or not, but carbonara purists be warned: I did say this was heretical carbonara).
A Slightly Non-Traditional Pasta alla Carbonara
Ingredients
- 250 grams pasta like spaghetti or rigatoni
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 55 grams guanciale or unsmoked pancetta cubed
- ½ shallot chopped
- 3 eggs
- 100 grams finely grated Pecorino Romano divided, plus extra for serving
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of generously salted water to the boil. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a small skillet. Sauté the guanciale or pancetta and shallot until the meat is dorata, or slightly golden. Remove from the heat and place on a plate lined with paper towels.
- Add the pasta to the pot of boiling water, and cook according to the instructions. While the pasta is cooking, beat together the eggs, just over half of the Pecorino Romano, and some black pepper.
- When the pasta is ready, drain it and place it in a large bowl. Immediately add the egg mixture, the rest of the Pecorino Romano, and the guanciale-shallot mixture. Mix everything together, maintaining movement to prevent the eggs from scrambling. If necessary, add salt to taste. Once the pasta has become sufficiently creamy, plate and serve immediately with some more Pecorino Romano over the top.
Notes
- Guanciale is traditional, but unsmoked pancetta makes a good substitute. If you can’t get your hands on either, you can substitute smoked pancetta or even bacon, in a pinch.
- A lot of recipes recommend mixing the eggs and pasta in the same pot as the pasta was boiled in, but I’ve found that depending on how much heat the pot retains, it’s often more difficult to control the scrambling of the eggs. Because of this, I recommend doing the mixing in a separate bowl. The pasta will be hot enough to sufficiently cook the eggs.