Authentic Italian Spaghetti Carbonara

This Pasta dishes is one of my favourites, great simple flavours that work so well together. This is authentic as the Italians don't use cream to make it creamy this is done by using beaten eggs. its a English thing to use cream and not as good! The key to this dish is using good quality ingredients, make sure you use Pancetta and Italian spaghetti. The dish should only take around 10 minutes to cook...now that's what I call Fast Food!!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

400g dried spaghetti ( good quality ( I used De Cecco )

175g piece smoked pancetta, rind removed

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

handful flatleaf parsley leaves, finely chopped

3 large free-range eggs, beaten

50g Parmesan finely grated
Sea salt 
Freshly ground black pepper


What to do:

Bring a pan of water to boil and add a good pinch of salt, add a glug of Olive oil

Handy Tip:

by adding the olive oil to the water this helps the pasta from sticking together

Add the spaghetti and cook for 10 minutes, or until al dente.

Meanwhile, cut the pancetta into lardons (short little strips), and heat deep frying pan over a medium-high heat, add the oil and the pancetta and fry until lightly golden.

Remove from the heat and add the garlic and stir so that the garlic does not catch, after 2 minutes add the parsley and cook for a few seconds, 

With tongs pick the pull the spaghetti out of the pan and into the pancetta well,  now add  he eggs and half the grated Parmesan cheese and toss together well.

Handy Tip:

The heat from the spaghetti will be sufficient to partly cook the egg, but still leave it moist and creamy

Season to taste with a little salt and black pepper and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.

Photos by Matt Grice

Recipe adapted from Rick Stein