Pasta
Spaghetti Carbonara
A Roman classic made the proper way: crisp guanciale or pancetta, eggs and extra yolks, Pecorino and Parmesan and plenty of black pepper, tossed off the heat with starchy pasta water into a glossy sauce. No cream, and a simple trick that stops the egg scrambling.
- Serves 4
- Ready in 30 min
- No cream
- Italian (Roman)
Method
Bring about 3 litres of water to the boil in a wide pan. Using less water than usual leaves it starchier, which helps the sauce. Salt it lightly: the cheese and cured pork are already salty.
In a large heatproof bowl, beat the eggs (2 eggs) and yolks (3 egg yolks) with the Pecorino (40 g), Parmesan (40 g) and black pepper (1 tsp) to a thick paste.
Put the guanciale or pancetta (150 g) in a large cold frying pan with the olive oil (1 tbsp) and the garlic clove, if using. Cook over a medium-low heat for 8–10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the fat has melted out and the edges are crisp and golden. Lift out and discard the garlic, then take the pan off the heat.
Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti (400 g) for 1–2 minutes less than the packet says, so it is still a little firm.
Just before the pasta is ready, whisk 3–4 tablespoons of the hot cooking water into the egg mixture. This warms it gently so it thickens rather than scrambles later.
Lift the spaghetti straight into the frying pan with tongs, letting some water cling to it, and toss over a low heat for 30 seconds so every strand is coated in the pork fat. Take the pan off the heat and leave it for about 30 seconds to stop sizzling.
Tip the pasta and pork into the bowl of egg mixture and toss hard with the tongs, adding a splash more pasta water at a time, until the sauce turns creamy and coats the spaghetti. If it is still runny, set the bowl over the pan of hot pasta water for a few seconds at a time and keep tossing until it thickens slightly. Stop as soon as it looks glossy: any further and it will turn grainy.
Serve straight away in warm bowls with more grated cheese and a good grind of pepper.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Chef’s notes
- Guanciale (cured pork cheek) is the Roman choice and gives the sweetest fat. Pancetta is the easiest swap; smoked streaky bacon works but tastes smokier.
- Real carbonara has no cream, onion or peas. The creaminess comes from egg, cheese, pork fat and starchy water.
- The eggs are only lightly cooked. In the UK, British Lion eggs are advised as safe for vulnerable groups when lightly cooked; elsewhere, use pasteurised eggs if serving anyone at risk.
- Marcella Hazan added a splash of dry white wine to the pork as it finished cooking. It is a nice variation if you like a sharper edge.
- Carbonara does not wait. Have the bowls warming and everyone at the table before you toss the pasta.
Where carbonara comes from
For a dish now treated as sacred, carbonara is surprisingly young. It does not appear in Italian cookery writing until around 1950, and the early printed recipes vary a lot. Some include garlic or Gruyère, and for decades many cooks, in Italy too, added cream.
Nobody knows for certain where the name came from. One story credits the carbonari, charcoal burners from the Apennine hills, who could carry cured pork, cheese and eggs. Another links it to Rome in 1944, when Allied troops had bacon and powdered egg and Roman cooks combined them with pasta. A carbonara is also simply a charcoal grill, and the heavy black pepper looks like flecks of coal.
Whatever its origin, the Roman version settled on guanciale, Pecorino Romano, egg and black pepper, and that is the dish most Italians would recognise today.
How this recipe was developed
We compared versions by Marcella Hazan, Jamie Oliver and Christopher Kimball (Milk Street) with the highest-rated carbonara recipes on BBC Good Food, NYT Cooking, Serious Eats and Allrecipes, then kept the elements that most sources agreed on and that test best.
- Equal Pecorino and Parmesan. Serious Eats uses a 50/50 mix; BBC Good Food’s Ultimate carbonara uses equal weights; Marcella Hazan blends Romano with Parmigiano.
- Whole eggs plus extra yolks. Serious Eats relies mostly on yolks for richness; BBC Good Food and Jamie Oliver use whole eggs. We use 2 whole eggs and 3 yolks for a rich sauce that still coats loosely.
- Less pasta water and tempering the egg. Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street cooks the pasta in less water for a starchier liquid and warms the egg mix before it meets the pasta.
- Mixing off the heat, with a gentle-heat rescue. BBC Good Food and Jamie Oliver add the egg off the heat and loosen with pasta water; Serious Eats finishes over simmering water so it cannot curdle.
- Garlic optional, cooked in the fat and removed. Marcella Hazan and BBC Good Food both flavour the fat with a crushed garlic clove and then take it out.
- Left out. Onion, cream and wine in the sauce, as in the popular Allrecipes version: they dilute the egg-and-cheese sauce that defines the dish.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- Marcella Hazan: Spaghetti Carbonara (Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking), as reproduced by the LA Times
- Jamie Oliver: Easy carbonara
- Christopher Kimball (Milk Street): Skillet Spaghetti alla Carbonara
- Christopher Kimball (Milk Street): Roman Spaghetti Carbonara
- BBC Good Food (Angela Nilsen): Ultimate spaghetti carbonara (4.6/5, 1086 ratings)
- NYT Cooking (Ian Fisher): Spaghetti Carbonara (5/5, 17917 ratings)
- Serious Eats (Daniel Gritzer): Spaghetti With Carbonara Sauce (4.5/5, 21 ratings, 73 reviews)
- Allrecipes (SABRINATEE): Spaghetti Carbonara (II) (4.5/5, 2049 ratings)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.