Linguine Carbonara Recipe

For lovers of rich and substantial cuisine here is the ideal recipe to satisfy your hunger, the Linguine Carbonara Recipe.

It is not the traditional Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe, but it is a variant of an already delicious first course.

Carbonara pasta is an original recipe from Italy, and it dates back to not many years ago, although its origins are still not very clear. It is known as a recipe that is repeated everywhere and often with variations.

In the following link you can see the original recipe for pasta carbonara, but this time we will use linguine, and we will add cream, which is an additional ingredient that enhances the flavor of the guanciale and has the ability to amalgamate the flavor of all ingredients.

How to make Linguini Carbonara Recipe

• Preparation time: 20-25 minutes.
• Difficulty: easy
• Servings: 4 persons
• Calories: 600/portion

When we talk about pasta carbonara, we are talking about an Italian gastronomic recipe prepared with an egg-based sauce, sheep’s cheese and guanciale, pork belly or bacon.

This sauce has the particularity that it cooks in contact with the heat of the pasta itself, wrapping the dish with a soft and delicious cream.

In the traditional recipe of the carbonara sauce spaghetti is used, but nowadays it is normal to see this sauce bathing many different types of pasta. The important thing here is to respect the cooking times of each type of pasta.

The carbonara sauce uses very few ingredients, and is prepared in a few minutes. The base of the seasoning is guanciale or bacon, eggs, cured sheep’s cheese and ground black pepper.

In the simplicity of its ingredients lies much of its success, being one of the most prepared recipes worldwide. Today we are going to prepare delicious Linguine Carbonara Recipe with cream to lick your fingers…

Carbonara Linguine ingredients for 2 people

As we said before, the original recipe uses guanciale, which is the pork jowl, very similar to bacon. In fact, it is common to find guanciale and pork belly as a synonym, although they are not really.

The guanciale is covered with salt and ground black pepper and left to cure for three months. But if you can’t find it, you can use pork belly. And if you prefer a milder taste, you can choose bacon.

This recipe, by using a few ingredients allows to create many different varieties. It is very common to use cream in this dish, even though it is not in the original recipe.

Let’s see the ingredients we are going to use in our carbonara noodle recipe:

• 200 grams of Linguine
• 50 grams pecorino or grated sheep’s cheese
• 100 grams of guanciale, pancetta or bacon
• 1 egg
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons of cream (optional)
• Salt
• Ground black pepper

How to prepare Linguini Carbonara Recipe

1 We prepare the carbonara sauce

The first step in the preparation of Linguine Carbonara Recipe will be to make the base for the carbonara sauce.

In a large bowl, break the eggs. Usually a number equal to the number of guests plus one is used for the frying pan. As this recipe is for two people, we use 3 eggs: 2 yolks and 1 whole.

Beat the eggs with a fork or a whisk, and add salt and black pepper. If we want a softer sauce, we can add cream to taste.

Then we add almost all the grated cheese. Remember to leave some cheese for seasoning when serving the Linguini.

Stir the mixture until you get a homogeneous and consistent sauce.

If the cream is too thick, you can add a spoonful of the noodle cooking water, and stir it again.

2 We cook the Linguine

The second step is to cook the linguine. We put a casserole with plenty of water on the fire and add salt, nothing else. It is not necessary to add oil or laurel.

When the water is boiling, add the linguine and to avoid sticking, stir several times during the first minutes.

It is important to respect the cooking times indicated on the packaging to obtain an al dente pasta.

Ideally, use quality linguine and calculate the time for the pasta to be cooked when the meat is ready.

3 Preparing the meat

The third step is to prepare the meat. Many will tell you to be careful with “imitations”, to use nothing but guanciale. But the reality is there are many who prefer to use bacon or the mild taste of bacon, even cooked ham.

Don’t be afraid to try until you find out how to make the carbonara linguine to your liking.

Now we remove the skin from the guanciale slices and cut them into cubes of approximately 1 cm. Heat a non-stick frying pan and pour in the meat and a little black pepper if you like. Many like to add a little garlic to accompany the meat. To your taste.

You have to make the guanciale sweat. This will create some fat dissolved in the pan that will be used to brown the meat in its own fat for a more authentic taste.

We do not recommend using oil because it adds unnecessary fat. We sauté the meat for several minutes over medium heat, stirring often until the meat looks brown, crisp but juicy. Then we turn off the fire and put everything in the pan.

4 The union of all the ingredients

When the linguini are ready, we drain them and put them in the pan with the meat and the dissolved fat. Put it back on medium heat and add one or two ladles of cooking water.

Stir the mixture to mix the flavours and to thicken the water and fat broth. When there is a balance between broth and pasta, turn off the heat and let it cool down for 30 seconds.

Now we pour the egg and cheese mixture while stirring so that the carbonara sauce wraps around the linguine and other ingredients without overcooking.

Ideally, the linguine should be neither too hot nor too cold, because if they are too hot, the egg will cook quickly and we will end up with something more like a spaghetti omelette.

The heat of the pasta and the frying pan has to be sufficient to obtain a creamy carbonara linguine dish.

Now we serve immediately, seasoning each dish with a little of the remaining cheese and freshly ground black pepper.

The carbonara linguine must be served hot and enjoyed immediately to appreciate the creaminess of the sauce as well as its special taste that distinguishes it.

Enjoy!

Variations of the Carbonara Recipe

The traditional recipe uses spaghetti with guanciale, eggs and pecorino cheese. If you want, you can see here how to make Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe, the original recipe

But today there are many variants of this dish of Italian gastronomy.

One of the most widespread variants is to make spaghetti carbonara with cream, adding this seasoning to the original recipe to reduce the taste of the egg, or even replacing it entirely.

On the other hand, different types of pasta are also used. One of the most used pastas is the macaroni carbonara recipe, although other pastas such as foratini, fettuccine or rigatoni are also used.

It is also common to use other softer cheeses to reduce the taste of pecorino cheese. For example, half parmesan cheese, half sheep’s cheese can be used. You can also use all Parmesan cheese. Some people even use spreadable cheese.

We have already talked about replacing guanciale with bacon, bacon or even cooked ham. But there are also versions of this dish where the meat disappears, like in the carbonara marina or in the vegetarian one.

The origin of carbonara sauce

Carbonara is a typical dish of Rome, with a history that is also quite recent, as well as disputed.

The most reliable hypothesis is that the recipe was created during the American occupation just after the war, using the typical foreign ingredients, namely eggs and bacon, which the soldiers of the American army liked.

All this is combined with the delicious Pecorino Romano cheese, which gives even more flavour to the dish along with the black pepper, which spices up the taste.

But referring to the name, some want the carbonara to have been created by the revolutionary Umbrian coalmen and then introduced to Rome, or even to have been created by Ippolito Cavalcanti, a Neapolitan, in the last century.

We hope you liked this Linguine Carbonara Recipe… we are still licking our fingers… Don’t forget to share on your favorite social networks.