Carbonara is where pasta journey began for me. Here's how I do it:
Ingredients: Guanciale, spaghetti, pecorino, eggs, black pepper, salt
Grill guanciale. Once grilled enough (cripy), put some aside for plating later and leave oil in the pan
Mix eggs, pecorino, and black pepper
Add pasta 2 minutes before al dente into the pan with guanciale oil, stir. Add some pasta water
Put the stainless bowl with the sauce on top of the pasta water pan at low heat and toss pasta mixed with guanciale oil into it. Then stir vigorously (this helps with not scrambling the egg mix the way I understand). Add some pasta water when sauce is almost absorbed
Remove from the heat and final mantecatura
Plate the finished pasta and put guanciale back on with more pecorino and black pepper
by Neyrok37
6 Comments
Looks really good. Did the sauce adhere to the pasta?
It looks good, but it seems to me from the first and last pictures that the sauce is a bit too liquid. Or maybe there is just too much. The background is blurry so it’s hard to tell.
I would avoid using the pasta water unless you absolutely need to. The egg and pecorino mixture alone should give you the correct texture.
Also, this is purely a matter of preference but I recommend short pasta instead of spaghetti with carbonara. My experience with spaghetti is that the guanciale will make its way down to the bottom of the bowl as you eat the pasta, while if you use Tortiglioni or Mezze Maniche or something of the sort it will get trapped inside.
Looks great apart from the runny sauce. There are a few ways to deal with this. Dont add any pasta water, the pasta water thats on the noodles is enough. The eggs have enough water.
When doing the waterbath method you chose its important to be very Patient, because the sauce takes for ever to thicken that way. But it can also give the best result.
I Prefer to finish in the warm pan for that reason. Its a lot quicker, especially when doing more than one Portion. If the pan is off the heat for a Minute the eggs shouldnt scramble at all. It can also be heated gently after the fact to thicken the sauce even more, in the smallest burner, lowest setting.
Looks good, a bit runny as others have said. I just had carbonara at roscioli in Rome. Delicious, unfortunately I’ll never be able to make it a home again, it will never live up to that.
Looks better than most of the other posts to this sub. Just a bit runny as others have mentioned, but you’re 95% of the way there.
Did you use the whole egg or just the yolk ?