Spaghetti alla carbonara is probably my favorite pasta dish. It has such simple ingredients – eggs, pancetta, butter – yet it is so rich and tasty. I love it made with fresh pasta because the pasta is more tender when you bite into it and the carbonara sauce clings better to it, whereas the dry pasta can be a little slippery and the sauce slides right off of it.

You can use any kind of pasta but I usually use either thin spaghetti or angel hair pasta. I like to use Buitoni fresh pasta.

Buitoni Fresh Pasta

The hardest part of making pasta alla carbonara is incorporating the raw eggs into the pasta without allowing the eggs to coagulate; otherwise, you’ll end up with chunks of eggs rather than a creamy sauce. This has to be done by adding the beaten raw eggs into the hot pasta very slowly while quickly stirring the pasta at the same time.

If you don’t have pancetta on hand, you can substitute bacon.

Ingredients 4 – 6 servings
9 oz. fresh thin spaghetti pasta
1 T olive oil
1 garlic clove, smashed
4 oz. diced pancetta
2 T butter
2 eggs
3/4 c Pecorino Romano cheese
salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste

1. In a large frying pan, add olive oil and garlic and saute the garlic until lightly brown. You can remove the garlic when it’s done, but I like to leave it in.
2. Add the pancetta and cook until crispy. Set aside.
3. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the pasta al dente. If using fresh pasta, it usually takes less time than dry pasta out of a box, depending on what type/size of pasta, so try it after about 1 or 2 minutes. Drain the pasta and add it to the pancetta in the pan and mix.
4. Add the butter to the pasta and pancetta mixture and mix.
5. In a small bowl, beat the eggs with a fork.
6. Take the beaten eggs and slowly add it to the pasta while quickly mixing the pasta.
7. Turn on the heat at low temperature and keep mixing the pasta until it looks creamy. (This will cook the eggs so that you don’t have to worry about them being raw.)
8. Add the cheese, salt, and black pepper and mix together.
9. Remove from heat and enjoy!

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