Carbonara
Eggs, Pecorino, guanciale, black pepper, no cream. The technique note here matters more than in any other pasta recipe on the site.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 25 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
Four plates.
- ThinSlim 8 oz ThinSlim Foods Impastable Low Carb Pasta Penne
- 6 oz guanciale or thick cut pancetta, cut into short batons
- 3 large eggs plus 1 yolk
- 1 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano, plus more to finish
- 2 tsp coarsely cracked black pepper, plus more
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Kosher salt
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Method
- Bring a large pot of well salted water to the boil.
- Put the guanciale in a cold wide skillet with the olive oil and set it over medium low. Cook 10 to 12 minutes, until the fat has rendered out and the pieces are deep golden and crisp at the edges. Take the pan off the heat.
- Whisk the eggs, yolk, Pecorino and pepper in a bowl until it is a thick paste with no streaks of white.
- Boil the penne for one minute less than the package timing. Before draining, scoop out 1 1/2 cups of the cooking water.
- Add half a cup of the hot water to the egg mixture in a thin stream, whisking hard, to warm it through without scrambling it.
- Tip the drained penne into the skillet with the guanciale and toss to coat in the fat. Let the pan cool for a full minute, off the heat, until you can hold your hand just above it comfortably.
- Pour in the egg mixture and toss continuously for about a minute, adding hot water a splash at a time, until the sauce turns glossy and clings to the pasta.
- Serve at once with more Pecorino and pepper.
Tips
The cooking water is the problem to solve here. Semolina sheds starch into the pot and that starch is what makes carbonara creamy. Impastable sheds far less, so the water alone will not thicken the sauce. The extra yolk and the full cup of cheese do that job instead. Do not cut either.
Let the pan cool a full minute before the eggs go in. This is true of any carbonara and unforgiving here, because with less starch as a buffer the eggs scramble faster.
Start the guanciale in a cold pan. Dropped into a hot one the outside seizes before the fat renders and you get chewy pieces sitting in a dry pan.
Carbonara does not reheat. Make what you will eat.
Let the pan cool a full minute before the eggs go in. This is true of any carbonara and unforgiving here, because with less starch as a buffer the eggs scramble faster.
Start the guanciale in a cold pan. Dropped into a hot one the outside seizes before the fat renders and you get chewy pieces sitting in a dry pan.
Carbonara does not reheat. Make what you will eat.