Pasta carbonara is a favourite pasta of mine–and that’s saying a lot because generally speaking I don’t care for pasta. My parents are from Italy, and growing up we exclusively ate traditional dishes. Lots of pasta and sauce, lots of veal cutlets and lots of eggplant parmesan. We ate pasta with every meal and while tomato sauce was the easy go to for my parents, sometimes they made pasta in other ways and this was one of my favourites.
Unfortunately, even though this was a favourite of mine, it was the 90s and because eggs were considered bad for you, my parents didn’t make this dish often. But when they did, I was in heaven.
Easy to make, you don’t need too much. In fact, a lot of what you need are pantry staples so this is actually usually pretty easy to throw together.
A Word on Eggs
I mentioned that in the 90s, it was thought eggs were bad for your health. For the record, eggs are not bad for you. Advice in the past limited eggs strictly, as they were supposed to give you high cholesterol, but modern data shows dietary cholesterol impacts blood cholesterol less than saturated and trans fats as per the Mayo Clinic.
So enjoy this dish worry free!
Origins of the Recipe
A quick search on the internet found that there are different theories on the origins of this recipe (apparently it’s a widely debated topic) and the exact ingredients. This is the way my mother made it, and I know for a fact that when she and my father were growing up in post war Italy (my mother emigrated in the 60s as a child and my father emigrated around 1968 as a grown man–they married in 1970) that everyone used whatever was on hand and in season to make their meals. Cooking was passed on generation to generation and even in the same village, the same dish might be made slightly differently to suit family preference.
The recipe may or may not have ancient Roman roots, be linked to Neapolitan cuisine and definitely became a meal that appeared in cookbooks by the end of WWII.
Ingredient Breakdown
You only need, pasta, pancetta (though bacon will do) eggs, parmesan cheese and some garlic. The recipe calls for saffron but my mom always skipped it because saffron is wildly expensive.
Try and get pancetta, about half an inch thick. While bacon is good, you’ll love the pancetta, trust me.
Be sure to buy real parmesan cheese from the deli. Nothing else will do.
You can substitute gluten free pasta, an easy swap. You could also sub the spaghetti for another kind of pasta like fettuccine.
Mom’s Pasta Carbonara
Ingredients
Method
- Heat oil in pasta dutch oven. Add garlic and the pinch of saffron.
- Discard garlic when fragrant.
- Add bacon and cook until browned. Remove from heat when done and set aside.
- Cook pasta in a separate pot, according to package instructions.
- Once pasta is cooked, drain and add pasta to the dutch oven with bacon.
- Add beaten eggs directly to the hot pasta and mix together well. Add cheese and continue mixing until eggs are cooked and well distributed. Serve immediately.
Serve and Enjoy
There isn’t much more to this recipe. It’s simple enough for even a novice cook to attempt. Just be sure to serve and eat immediately, as cold pasta isn’t really tasty and cold eggs are even worse.
Let me know in the comments how you make your carbonara and be sure to follow me on my socials.