Spaghetti alla Carbonara

So many of you have asked me over the years for a carbonara recipe and here is my version. If you’ve never made it yourself, it's time to give it a try! Depending on where you are in the world it can be quite hard to find guanciale, so the best alternative would be to use pancetta. I also like to use some of the egg whites rather than just the egg yolks as this stops the sauce from becoming too stodgy. 

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

• ​300g of rigatoni or spaghetti
• 2 whole large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 tsp of whole black peppercorn
• 150g guanciale
• 70g of pecorino cheese plus extra for serving 

Method

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil, ready to cook your pasta.
2. Add the guanciale to a cold frying pan and then turn on the heat to a medium-low heat. This way you will render all of the fat slowly so that it's super crispy but not burnt. Make sure you don’t use any oil. 
3. Toast the black peppercorns in a separate pan before then crush them in a pestle and mortar until they're roughly ground and set aside. 
4. To a metal or glass bowl add the two whole eggs and two egg yolks. Beat the eggs nicely and add a good amount of grated pecorino cheese and a generous amount of the black pepper. Give it a good mix all together. It should form a thick paste.
5. Once the guanciale is golden and crispy, turn the heat off and use a slotted spoon to transfer it into a bowl. Add two tablespoons of the released fat to the egg and pecorino mix and keep just about one tablespoon in the pan to stir the spaghetti into later, discard the rest. 
6. Cook the spaghetti until al dente. When the pasta is almost ready, bring the frying pan where you cooked the guanciale to a medium heat. Transfer the spaghetti from the pasta water directly to the pan, add a little bit of pasta water and give it a good stir. 
7. Keep the pot where you cooked the pasta still on the heat and use it as a bain marie to cook the egg mix. Then transfer the pasta into the egg mix and stir until it's nice and creamy. By cooking in a bain marie it ensures you don't scramble the eggs and you get the perfect creamy sauce. Add half of the crispy guanciale and give it a good stir once more.  
8. Serve up your spaghetti with all that egg and pecorino cream on top and the remaining crispy guanciale. Grate some extra pecorino cheese on top and enjoy!

Watch the recipe video

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