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Easy pasta carbonara with only 5 main ingredients and it takes 20 minutes to make. Perfect for a quick weeknight dinner.
Happy Monday! How was your weekend? Mine was pretty quiet.
Since it is the beginning of the week, I have the perfect easy pasta carbonara recipe for you to incorporate into your weekly meal plan.
This is one of my favorite pasta dishes, that I love to make, because it is very straight forward and always works great!
Carbonara is a pasta dish based on bacon, eggs, Parmesan and black pepper.
I almost always use spaghetti for this dish, but any pasta like fettuccine, rigatoni or linguine could be substituted.
You can also use pancetta instead of bacon, if you’d like.
What I like about this pasta is the crunchy bacon, light sauce and I also like it topped with lots of cheese.
I’ve seen recipes using cream for the sauce, but there isn’t a single drop of cream in this recipe.
The eggs and cheese make this spaghetti carbonara perfectly creamy!
Just make sure you work quickly and lowed the heat (even remove the pan from the heat), when adding the sauce to the cooked pasta, so the sauce sticks to the spaghetti and you don’t end up with scrambled eggs.
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20 Minute Pasta Carbonara
Ingredients
- 5 ounces spaghetti
- 4 slices bacon, , cooked and chopped
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 medium eggs
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a pinch of salt. Cook pasta according to the instructions on the package. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water and drain.
- Meanwhile - whisk eggs and combine with Parmesan cheese. Set a side.
- Heat 1 tsp olive oil and add garlic, cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until fragrant. Add cooked bacon and pasta. Remove from heat and working quickly, stir in pasta and egg/Parmesan mixture. Add some if the reserved pasta water and stir to combine.
- Season with salt and black pepper. Top with chopped parsley and additional Parmesan cheese, if desired.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
More Pasta Dishes:
Fettuccine With Homemade Red Pasta Sauce
Quinoa Pasta With Tomato Mushroom Sauce
Mmm that pasta carbonara looks awesome, and I love that it’s super easy to make!! Your photography looks amazing, Mira! Pinned 🙂
This pasta looks delicious Mira. I love pasta, it’s one of my favorite dish. 🙂
I love this carbonara and that there’s no heavy cream! There’s nothing better than a quick dinner too!
Thanks Danielle!
Carbonara is one of my favourite pasta dishes! This looks divine, Mira!
I’m a sucker for that eggy carbonara sauce. Such a great easy weeknight meal!
Beautiful looking pasta. I love carbonara.
Thanks!
I just completed 11 miles of running & walking (with doggie. . .the lazy girl won’t run). . .so you can imagine how much I am yearning for this delicious pasta. I’ll take mine with whole wheat noodles. 🙂
I love carbonara, Mira, and this looks delicious! I haven’t made it in far too long, so thank you for the inspiration! 🙂
Carbonara is my all time favourite pasta dish! It’s just soooo delicious. Your recipe for it sounds absolutely perfect, and I love that it only takes 20 minutes! I love the photographs too – you’re making me a crave a huge bowl of this right now!
I love so simple recipes like this, made in 20 minutes. I just had a pasta for dinner today, but next time I should make this Carbonara:)