Pasta with carbonara sauce is a famous Italian dish. It is a spaghetti with small pieces of dried pork cheeks, or, as they are also called, guanchial, which is mixed with a sauce of eggs, parmesan cheese, pepper and salt. Guanchiales are sometimes replaced with brisket (pancetta). How much to cook pasta on time and how to cook the sauce, we will tell in our article. Let's get acquainted.
Different cooking variations
Legends around the world go about the great love of Italians for pasta with carbonara sauce. Most often, in a sunny country, pasta is consumed with a variety of delicious and hearty sauces. Carbonara sauce was invented specifically for pasta. It exclusively selected components in such a way as not to shade the taste of pasta, but not to completely “clog” it.
A huge number of recipes is known for making pasta with carbonara sauce. These are both classical methods familiar to everyone and non-traditional, known only to a small number of culinary specialists. So, some housewives replace the meat component with seafood, cream with milk, and also add mushrooms. The sauce is flavored with fresh herbs and seasonings.
You can also find a pasta recipe in carbonara sauce, where yolks for the sauce are usually brewed using a water bath. However, experienced chefs recommend adding yolk already to the paste, which is pre-flavored with sauce. Then the contents should only be mixed.
No less delicious sauce without eggs. To make the dish taste like cheese, some housewives add gorgonzola. Any other mold cheese may be suitable. While cooking, it is not forbidden to experiment, but rather the selection of any suitable ingredients for pasta with carbonara sauce is welcome. Consider a traditional cooking recipe.
Step by step recipe for carbonara sauce
Carbonara sauce is an irreplaceable symbol of Italy. The secret of the dish is hidden in a special delicate sauce with a light speck. Even for a novice housewife, making the sauce at home will not be difficult - households and guests who come for a long time will be impressed by the cooked gourmet Italian dishes.
A feature of this sauce is its specific taste. The originality of the dish adds sheep’s cheese called "Pecorino Romano." Olive oil for cooking should be taken in the highest quality. Only egg yolks are needed in the sauce.
For cooking, you need the following ingredients:
- guanchile - 150 g;
- eggs - 4 pcs.;
- pecorino romano (parmesan) - 150 g;
- olive oil - 2 tbsp. l .;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- basil - a sprig.
Practical part
Begin cooking sauce with roasting garlic. To do this, pour a small amount of oil into the pan, heat it and fry chopped garlic until browned. After that, add thinly sliced guanchial pieces to the pan and fry them for several minutes. In no case is it recommended to overcook them, otherwise the product will become tough.
It is necessary to grind cheese on a grater. The result should be medium-sized chips. Now is the time to separate the yolks from the proteins. Then, a small amount of seasoning and sheep cheese should be added to the egg yolks. The resulting slurry should be mixed with the meat component and put on hot spaghetti. Garnish with greens if desired. After a few minutes, the sauce can be mixed and served. The dish is ready to eat.
Description of cooking pasta with carbonara sauce
Do not forget that some of the components that make up the dish we are interested in can be difficult to find on supermarket shelves. Based on this, most housewives adapt the recipe to the available ingredients. However, true connoisseurs of Italian cuisine are sure that replacing the necessary products, you can not feel all the delicate taste notes.
To cook pasta with carbonara sauce, both classic spaghetti and familiar horns can work - there isn’t much difference. The sauce will be cooked in parallel with pasta. How much to cook in time? Macaroni should be thrown into boiling water, and at this time begin to prepare a delicate sauce.
For cooking, you will need the following ingredients:
- pasta - 250 g;
- ham - 100 g;
- cheese - 65 g;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- eggs - 2 pcs.;
- cream - 150 g;
- ground black pepper.
Step-by-step instruction
To start cooking, you need to start by chopping garlic. If desired, it can be fried or minced through the garlic. Then, to the chopped garlic, add the egg yolks and ground pepper, separated from the proteins. The resulting slurry should be poured with prepared cream.
The time spent should be enough for the pasta to cook. They need to be thrown into a colander and put in a separate bowl. The final step is flavoring pasta with cooked sauce. As a rule, the dish is served hot. Enjoy your meal!
Carbonara sauce - a good addition to homemade pizza
As you know, carbonara sauce can be used not only for making pasta. Delicious enough is pizza, which is flavored with sauce. The only thing from the composition of the step-by-step recipe is to remove the meat component, and the pizza dressing is ready. Usually it is used together with red tomato sauce. The best filling for this pizza is cheese, cherry tomatoes, bacon or ham. Experienced cooks recommend chicken eggs to complement a delicious dish. It should be poured into the middle of the pizza and put it in the oven for a few more minutes.
General cooking tips
And in order for the sauce to turn out to be truly tasty and tender, it is necessary to adhere to some nuances during its preparation.
- The dish should be cooked only on low heat or using a water bath. Do not forget that at high temperatures, eggs, cheese and cream can curl immediately. Lumps are formed in the sauce, from the appearance of which as a result the appearance of the dish becomes unpresentable.
- It is necessary to pay attention to the density of the sauce. It should be like sour cream. You can achieve this result with the help of fat cream or cheese, in which case you need to take more.
- Particular attention during the preparation of the sauce should be given to the eggs. They must be fresh. Raw yolks are used for the sauce, which are usually brewed in a water bath.
- Seasoning and salt. Italians do not salt the sauce, but they are used to slightly adding salt to the water in which the pasta is cooked. Since it is served together with the sauce, it turns out to achieve a certain taste in this way. If the pasta is unsalted or it is planned to season another dish with sauce, then you can add a little salt.
Prepare the sauce at a time, just before serving. Cooking it in reserve and storing it for a long time is not recommended, since in most recipes use raw yolks.