What makes a carbonara a carbonara? Pasta, egg, pork, and cheese. With these simple ingredients you can come up with a vaiety of carbonara combinations such as bacon and parmesean, or sausage and pecorino… The opportunities are endless.
I’ve decided to use basic kitchen staples for this carbonara combination. I used thick cut bacon for my recipe but you can use any type of bacon and it will come out almost exactly the same. While fresh parmesan cheese is amazing, I used the grated kind that comes in the container with the green lid (you know what I’m talking about). Although I use fresh parsley in my recipe, dried parsley will work fine as well (just use 1 tablespoon instead of two). You can use any pasta that you’d like for this recipe as well (just make sure you’re cooking the equivalent to two servings).
15 Minute Bacon Carbonara
This is a simple recipe you can make with items you might already have in your pantry and refrigerator: Pasta, egg, bacon, grated parmesan cheese, parsley, garlic powder, and olive oil.
Ingredients
- 4 oz linguine
- 4 strips of thick cut bacon, diced*
- 2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley, plus additional for garnish**
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tbs grated parmesan cheese, plus additional for garnish
- 2 tsp olive oil, divided, plus additional for drizzling
- salt
- pepper
Directions
- Cook linguine in a pot of heavily salted water and according to instructions on the box. Once done cooking, reserve 1 cup of pasta water then drain the pasta and set aside.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat 1 tsp olive oil in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon to the pan and cook for 8 minutes, or unitl crispy. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.
- Once the bacon is finished cooking remove from skillet and place on a paper towel lined plate. Pour off and discard any extra bacon fat from the skillet and return it to the stove.
- In a separate bowl, combine egg, parsley, garlic powder, cheese, and 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water. Thoroughly whisk the ingredients until well combined. Set aside.
- Heat the skillet to low (as low as the heat can go) and add in your cooked pasta along with 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water, stir to combine.
- Add bacon to the pasta stiring until reheated, about 1 minute.
- Turn off the heat and the egg mixture to the skillet, stiring quickly to coat the pasta. The residual heatfrom the pan will cook the egg.
- Stir in the remaining 1 tsp of olive oil to the pasta and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve the pasta and top with fresh parsley, a little cracked pepper, and another drizzle of olive oil.
*6 strips of traditional bacon can be used to replace the thick cut bacon.
** 1 tablespoon of dried parsley can replace fresh parsley
Recipe inspired by Jamie Oliver’s Easy Sausage Carbonara.
2 responses to “Bacon Carbonara”
Love carbonara, your recipe sounds so delicious that I have to prepare it this week to try it out 🙂
Thank you! If you try the recipe out please report back and let me know how you like it.