The name “Carbonara” derived from “carbonaro” (the Italian word for charcoal burner), which makes some believe the dish was first invented as a meal for Italian charcoal workers. What is certain is that it is a dish from Rome and it was conceived after World War II.

Carbonara has suffered many alterations, mainly because certain people can’t stand the idea of eating, namely, a dish with “raw egg”. In reality, the eggs used in the carbonara are very slowly cooked by the hot pasta added in the end.

I was about to use Spaghetti in this recipe, but so many pasta types are acceptable, so I finally went for the linguine as a last minute alternative.

Attention: the original carbonara contains no sign of cream!

 

Laziness Factor: 1

[where 0 is recording a video on a mobile phone in 2014 and 4 is shooting a film in 1926]

Cooking time: 20 min

 

Ingredients for 4-5 servings:

– 500g long pasta (spaghetti, linguine or fettucine)

– 2 eggs

– 100g bacon (or, like in Italy, pancetta)

– 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

– 200g parmesan

– salt and freshly ground pepper

 

1.

Boil the water where you are going to cook the pasta. You’ll add the pasta when the salted water starts boiling.

2.

In the meantime, chop (if in slices) or dice the bacon.

3.

Whisk the two eggs in a large bowl, where all your cooked pasta would fit.

4.

In case your parmesan is not already grated, grate it in a food processor. I stopped the machine before it turns to powder, you can continue to grate it as thin as you like.

 

5.

Finely chop or crush the garlic cloves.

6.

Put the bacon in a pan with some olive oil. When it starts turning brown, add the garlic and remove them from the fire in a minute.

7.

A minute before you drain the pasta, mix the parmesan and the eggs.

8.

While the pasta is still VERY hot, throw it in the bowl and stir quickly. Also add the bacon from the pan.

9.

After stirring for a minute, let the pasta absorb all the eggs for 1-2 minutes.

10.

You are ready to serve an enjoy! Bon appetit!

Here is a video version of this recipe:

What is LazyPasta.com?

Lazy Pasta is the page to explore the world's collection of easy pasta recipes - and then some more elaborate ones. As our life has become faster, you can also try our quick recipes that use favourite pasta types like spaghetti, lasagne, fusilli and rigatoni, that are combined to create simple pasta dishes.

All the Lazy Pasta recipes are presented in photos, which guide through the step-by-step process, and they all end up with their respective pasta recipe video.

Categories of pasta recipes

Lazy Pasta recipes are divided into categories: there are vegetarian pasta recipes, pasta recipes with meat, pasta recipes with seafood and fish, pasta salads, pasta soups and recipes with baked pasta.

The recipe presented above is Classic Spaghetti alla Carbonara and it belongs to the Meat Pasta Recipes category.

Why pasta?

Pasta is a great ingredient for quick and delicious dishes. Perfect pasta dishes don't always have to be hard to prepare. According to Lazy Pasta there is "an easy pasta recipe for every human on the planet".

Although it's hard to tell which country pasta originates from (whether it's Italy or China), the history of pasta is long and interesting.

Truth be told, pasta has become popular as an ingredient of the Italian cuisine and it forms part of the Mediterranean diet. Pasta dishes can be ordered and devoured in various Italian restaurants all around the world.

The secret of the pasta may lie in its simplicity. It is usually made of white flour or wheat flour, but today we also have the options of whole wheat pasta and, more recently, gluten-free pasta.

Then again, the list of ingredients that can be used in a pasta recipe is endless; The sauce can be anything for a simple tomato sauce to bechamel sauce, white sauce with cream or other dressings. Garlics and onions are great friends of pasta, vegetables and other greens like parsley, dill, spinach, zucchini, peppers, broccoli and mint can be found in various recipes, while cheese is an absolute ticket to success, either grated, sliced or baked on top.

No matter how elaborate a pasta recipe is, the result can be mouth-watering and is certain to please everyone's palate.