The BEST Carbonara Recipe (2024)

With pasta tossed with diced bacon, grated cheese, and copious amounts of black pepper and topped with a poached egg, this Spaghetti Carbonara recipe is smooth and creamy with incredible flavor. Though simple to make, it tastes and looks like something straight from an Italian restaurant.

The Best Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe

I recently went on the trip of a lifetime to Rome and the Amalfi Coast near Naples, Italy—the center of authentic Italian pasta manufacturing. It was an incredible experience and gave me a whole new appreciation for Italian pasta and their cuisine. While there I enjoyed the best Pasta Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe, Gricia and Pasta Amatriciana.

As soon as I returned home, I knew I had to recreate one of my favorite pasta dishes from the trip – spaghetti carbonara.

Carbonara is typically made with a raw egg that cooks when it hits the hot pasta, which often makes it pasty. My spaghetti carbonara recipe is topped with a poached egg so the yolk is already warm when it tops the spaghetti. This creates a velvety sauce that blends more easily — giving it richness without binding. Rather than using Pancetta here, I used leaner center-cut bacon and also added some greens to the mix – it’s beyond delicious!

Why You’ll Love Spaghetti alla Carbonara

• Simple yet elegant. Carbonara is a simple, straightforward dish to make yet when plated, it looks like something straight from a fancy Italian restaurant.
• Creamy (without cream). Between the broth the noodles are simmered in, fresh cheese, and the egg yolk, spaghetti carbonara has a lusciously creamy texture, without adding any cream at all.
• No need to worry about raw egg. One of the toughest parts of making traditional spaghetti alla carbonara is adding the egg at the right moment, to ensure that it cooks without scrambling. Using a poached egg on top, as we do in this recipe, completely eliminates that concern.

What is Carbonara?

Spaghetti Carbonara is an Italian pasta dish made in Rome with egg, a combination of Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano-Reggiano, guanciale or bacon, and black pepper. Sounds complicated, but it’s actually quite simple to make. Although it’s creamy, it’s actually made without cream.

In traditional spaghetti alla carbonara, the egg yolk is added raw to the hot pasta and starts to cook on contact. The downside to this, unless you’re eating it immediately, is that the carbonara becomes dried out.

Carbonara Sauce

With the method of poaching the egg instead of the traditional raw egg mixture, (inspired by Crispo, my favorite Italian restaurant in NYC that sadly closed after the pandemic), there’s no need to worry if the egg is still raw and the whole bowl of pasta doesn’t get all clumped together when you are ready to eat it.

Carbonara Recipe Ingredients

Carbonara is made with just a handful of simple ingredients. Be sure to check the recipe card below for measurements.

• Spaghetti – I used Delallo spaghetti but you can also use your preferred gluten-free spaghetti.
• Bacon – Instead of traditional pancetta, I opted for center-cut bacon in this recipe, which is a lighter option. Any cured pork would work.
• Chicken broth – Be sure to use low-sodium broth.
• Baby arugula – Frisée lettuce also works.
• Italian parsley
• Salt & pepper
• Cheese – A combination of grated Parmesan like Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano offer the classic flavor and creamy texture of this dish.
• Whole Eggs
• Poaching liquid – You’ll need cold water, white vinegar, and salt to make the poaching liquid.

How To Make Spaghetti Carbonara

Carbonara is a very simple dish to make. Here’s an overview and you can find more detailed instructions in the recipe card below.

1. Cook the pasta. Cook the pasta to al dente in a pot of generously salted water. Drain, reserving some pasta water, but do not rise.
2. Prepare the poaching liquid. Bring the poaching liquid to a boil then leave on low heat.
3. Cook the bacon. Cook the bacon until the meat is slightly crisp. Transfer to a plate and leave the fat in the skillet.
4. Cook the broth. Add the broth to the bacon fat and simmer to reduce by 1/3. Add in the arugula, parsley, salt and pepper.
5. Combine the ingredients. Add the drained pasta to the broth, raise the heat to high, and toss to coat. Cook for 2 minutes then remove from the heat. Stir in the cheese and toss to coat. If the pasta needs more liquid, pour in some of the reserved pasta water. Add the chopped bacon.
6. Poach the eggs. Carefully crack each egg into a small bowl and slide into barely boiling poaching liquid. Cook until the whites are set but the yolk is still runny then use a slotted spoon to transfer out of the water.
7. Serve. Divide the pasta into four bowls. Place an egg on each serving of pasta and season with salt and pepper.

Tips for Success

Here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind when making this pasta dish.

• Undercook the spaghetti. Be sure to boil the pasta to just barely al dente, as it will continue cooking when you add it to the broth later. If you cook it too much, it’ll end up mushy.
• Don’t drain the bacon fat. I add the broth to the pan with the bacon fat, as that adds so much flavor to the final dish.
• Make sure the poaching liquid reaches the right temperature. For perfect poached eggs, the poaching liquid should be just barely boiling. I recommend bringing the liquid to boiling first then reducing the heat to just boiling.
• Serve hot. To get the creamy texture, stir the egg into the pasta in each individual bowl while it’s still hot.

What To Serve With Carbonara

The addition of the greens in the dish means that you don’t really need any sides to go with this spaghetti carbonara. However, a side salad is never a bad idea! A fresh salad will definitely lighten up and brighten this dinner.

Proper Storage

Spaghetti carbonara is best served immediately and once you add the egg, it does need to be enjoyed right away.

• Fridge. However, if you have leftover pasta before you add the egg, you can store it in the fridge for up to 2 days.
• Reheat. To reheat, warm gently in the microwave, with an extra splash of broth if needed. Make the poached egg on the stovetop and add to the top of the reheated pasta.

More Pasta Recipes You Will Love

• Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups
• Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
• Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe
• Pasta and Broccoli
• Angel Hair Pasta with Zucchini and Tomatoes

Sponsored by DeLallo Foods. Thanks for supporting the brands I love that make Skinnytaste possible.

DeLallo Pasta vs Grocery Store Pasta:

• Made in Italy. DeLallo Pasta comes from the town where pasta was born, a region near Naples, at the beginning of the Amalfi Coast.
• Made with just 2 ingredients –wheat and water. The wheat is a locally milled, exclusive blend of the highest quality durum wheat with a high gluten content. It’s mixed with water from the local aquifer in the Lattari Mountains. The pure water contains less calcium so it makes a more supple pasta.
• Dried slowly at low temperatures to preserve pasta’s color, texture and flavor throughout the cooking process. DeLallo pasta has a natural drying time of 18 hours compared to some other commercial brands who bake their pasta for just four hours, and use cheaper, lower protein flour.
• Extruded with bronze dies. Delallo pasta has over 200 bronze dies in different shapes to create a rougher surface that absorbs and captures the sauces. Other manufactures use Teflon and plastic dies to mass produce pasta faster, but definitely not better.
• Cooks perfectly al dente. DeLallo’s pasta is golden in color and cooks up for that signature al dente texture: a tender but firm bite with a fleck of white at its center—what we call the pasta’s soul.
• DeLallo pasta is is made following the strict guidelines of Pasta di Gragnano PGI and is produced in a legally defined territory defined by the king of Napoli two centuries ago. Only pasta in this area can note this distinction, which protects the quality of the product.