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Spaghetti Carbonara is one of those deceptively easy looking recipes. And it is easy. Except, I will say you need to have a bit of cooking experience to be able to execute it well. If not made correctly, it will quickly turn into a scrambled egg pasta.

The whole dish only takes about ten minutes to put together after the noodles have been boiled, drained and set aside. But the last two minutes makes you hustle.

I use Rachael Ray’s Spaghetti Carbonara recipe. I have tried many and I feel hers is the best. I tweaked it very slightly. I changed the amount of spice and garlic, because that is what my family preferred. And I use good ol’ bacon instead of pancetta.

I wanted to write the recipe down and add some tips because I have learned some things that will make this recipe go more smoothly:

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 pound package of spaghetti noodles
4 slices of chopped bacon
1 minced clove of garlic (or 1 tsp. from a jar or one handy little pocket from the frozen packet available at Trader Joe’s)
1/2 cup white wine (whatever you are drinking. The recipe calls for dry, but I have used a Riesling and it is equally as good)
3 large egg yolks
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8-1/4 tsp. ground black pepper (start with 1/8 and see if it is enough)
1 cup reserved cooking water from the pasta

First things first. Freeze your four slices of bacon for twenty minutes. This will make it much easier to cut.

This part is purely optional: with the remaining bacon, I cook it in my oven with my oven bacon recipe while I prepare the Spaghetti Carbonara. My kids love to munch on the extra bacon with their pasta.

Boil a large pot of water. Add two Tablespoons of salt to the water once it is boiling. Add spaghetti noodles to the boiling water and cook according to directions on the package.

Separate egg yolks while spaghetti is boiling. This part is my favorite. It is so fun. Just crack your egg. Break it in half, keeping the whole egg in one half. Now pour the egg yolk into the other half of the shell. Keep doing this until the white has completely fallen out. Add the yolks to a small bowl and gently beat. Set aside.

Before draining the spaghetti, carefully reserve 1 cup of the boiling water.

Drain spaghetti. Set aside.

Chop bacon. Add to a large skillet and cook until crispy but not burnt. Usually this takes five to six minutes.

Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook an additional minute. Add wine. Let simmer in the pan for two minutes. Scrape up bits of bacon pieces. Turn off heat.

This is where you are gonna turn into a super hero. Are you ready? Well, it doesn’t matter because you are all ready at this part. There is no turning back. Go ahead and flip that apron into a cape.

No! Don’t really do that! We’re working with bacon here! Keep that apron on and just imagine it is a cape. You are free to implement your fantasy after this dish is on the table. And won’t that be fun?!

The next steps need to be done in order and pretty quickly.

Slowly add 1/2 cup of the hot cooking liquid you reserved from the spaghetti noodles to the egg yolks while you are continuously whisking them. Keep whisking until all of the 1/2 cup is added. You do not want scrambled eggs! Add your water slowly.

Now add your spaghetti noodles to the wine and bacon mixture.

Immediately add your egg yolks to the spaghetti noodle mixture and toss and toss and toss. Right before your eyes the spaghetti mixture will start to come together and turn creamy. If it is looking too dry and not easy to toss, slowly add more of your reserved cooking water to it while you toss.

Add salt, pepper, and cheese. Toss some more.

Serve promptly! If you did this properly, you will now have an incredible creamy white pasta with bits of bacon in it. Your family will swoon at your feet. If you did this incorrectly, you will have chunks of eggs and be thankful that you made some extra bacon. Just don’t tell anyone you weren’t trying to make breakfast for dinner!

Enjoy! This is one of my very favorite things to make. My husband requested it for his birthday dinner this year.

Do you love Spaghetti Carbonara? Have you made it yet?

Well, what are you waiting for? That cape ain’t gonna turn itself! ; )

P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

And My Romantic Home.

I love this recipe. It is one of my favorites. My kids like it, too. My husband does not like it. He is a big-on-texture guy and he can not get past the soaked tortilla chips (I do not want to use the word “mushy”) used in this recipe. I think this chili reads more like a hot dip because of it. But I love dip! We eat this a lot when my husband is at work.

I watched Rachael Ray make this recipe on her talk show when it was on. It looked so easy and good. I could not wait to try it.

And I did. And it was.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts cooked and cut into pieces (I just use a rotisserie chicken)
4 cups chicken stock (1 carton)
3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
1/4 cup chopped onio
2 minced garlic cloves (I just use 1 frozen packet)
1 Tbsp. Chili powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 seeded and chopped jalapeno
1 16 oz. jar of green salsa (salsa verde)
1 bottle of beer (anything you have or like)
Juice from 2 limes
Bag of tortilla chips (2 handfuls of tortilla chips set aside)

Optional Toppings

Chopped cilantro
Sour cream
Shredded cheese

I normally would never write down someone else’s recipe that I have not changed. However, there are a few things written in her recipe that I do differently (and that I remember her doing differently on the show). So, I am going to do a step by step.

Pour olive oil in a dutch oven or other pot you use for soups and stews until hot. Add onions and jalapeno. Cook until soft, about 7 minutes. Add garlic. Cook an additional minute. Now add your spices and stir around in onion mixture for one minute.

Turn off heat and add beer. Turn heat back on and add salsa and chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Add chicken. (Sometimes I add a can of chili beans). Simmer for fifteen minutes.

In the meantime, grind your handfuls of tortilla chips. I do not have a food processor, so I beat mine with a mallet in a large ziploc bag. No anger issues here. ; )

Add ground or super smashed tortilla chips to pot after fifteen minutes of simmering from the instructions above has passed. Continue simmering with tortilla chips now in pot for eight minutes. Stir every few minutes so tortilla chips do not clump together or stick to the bottom of the pan.

Turn off heat. Add lime juice. Stir.

Serve in bowls topped with cilantro and other optional toppings. We dip our tortilla chips into this yummy indulgence and walk away full and happy.

Thanks Rachael Ray for a recipe that has made us happy for years!

P. S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style!

Gnome Lover

Stumbling through life while still having fun

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Spaghetti Carbonara

Rachael Ray Green Chicken Chili