by maraarte,
1/16/2013Sorry to disagree with all the other good reviews of this recipe, but I did not like it at all. It was lacking in flavor and I did not like the consistency of the sauce, even though I used fine quality ingredients, and followed the instructions as written. It was only slightly better after cooking the pasta with the sauce a little more so that the egg was cooked more. Have had great results with many other recipes from Fine Cooking, but not with this one.
by marcella_from_italy,
9/18/2012very good explanation of how to toss pasta! But onions in carbonara is just NOT authentic, I'm afraid. And Pecorino cheese should be used instead of Parmigiano.
Also, that's quite a lot of pasta for just two eggs, however large. For me it's 1 egg/person/80 grams pasta (1/2 lb as stated here amounts roughly to 225 grams). This ratio of pasta to eggs gives you a perfectly creamy sauce and you can also cut on the oil (pancetta/guanciale gives off enough fat already on its own).
Just my two humble, but very Italian, cents :)
by capsaiCyn,
5/30/2012One of our favorite recipes - easy and delicious. We make it exactly as written.
by brer_rabbit,
1/20/2012This is excellent - I have made it at least two dozen times and it is a family favorite.
by booch221,
1/20/2012One of the favorites at our house. Sometimes we make it with prosciutto sliced thick, diced, and used in place of the pancetta.
by Chellspecker,
7/17/2011I love this recipe! I subscribe to the magazine and the issue it first appeared in came just before my birthday. I considered it a gift at the time and have made it countless times. I had always wondered about the right way to make carbonara and I found this recipe really covered the details necessary to make it turn out right. I've used rolled pancetta, flat pancetta, spicy pancetta and smoked bacon, and it always turns out. I've been unable to find pork jowl, but the hunt continues. The onion is crucial to bring out the other flavours, and if you chop it fine enough it mostly disintegrates, so there's no big pieces of onion. To make sure the egg doesn't scramble, you can pour in just a tiny bit first and check if it starts to solidify. Even off the heat, the pasta still has enough energy in it to scramble the eggs, so I leave it a bit before adding the egg. Better to err on the side of less heat and fire up the burner a bit if it isn't getting creamy than risk a spaghetti omelette! I would never add garlic to this recipe. I really wanted to try a basic simple carbonara and this is it! Thanks Fine Cooking!
by jlcall,
5/23/2010
by JekU,
12/30/2009This was great! Really easy to make with ingredients that are mostly available in my pantry! Added some minced garlic with the onions and used most of the oil from the bacon. Yummy! Will never make carbonara with cream again. Using eggs is definitely better.
by FewTopIngredients,
1/17/2009I tried it, for the sake of experience, even if I have been preparing the traditional recipe for a long time now.
The taste is very good but: onions in the carbonara recipe ??? why not garlic or curry if you want to add taste ?? Or you could replace bacon with parma ham ?? and then, would you still call it a carbonara ??
Otherwise the method of adding pasta cooking water is excellent, too many carbonara recipes replace it with cream wich is even worse than adding onions.
If you want to be almost sure to avoid the risk of egg's scrambling, wich is the only real difficulty of this recipe, the easiest way is to add a louche of pasta cooking water in small quantities directly in the eggs (while stirring), and then this creamy seasoning on the pasta.
Finally, you should never add parsley on a carbonara, other than a full branch (that you can easily take away) for decoration and colour.
by Pielove,
9/10/2008This was delicious, easy to make, and came together quickly from ingredients I usually have around. I used bacon, which added a tasty smoky note. This will definitely become a regular in our rotation.
by Amy,
7/27/2008Excellent! I cut my pancetta into smaller pieces, but that's the only change I made. FWIW, it's a 4 oz. portion of pasta, if the recipe serves two people... which is a large portion of such a rich dish.
by LonghornFan,
5/8/2008Excellent dish, and easy to make!
by jaclyne,
5/7/2008just what I was craving.
by juliunruly,
4/22/2008great!
by Workingmom,
4/5/2008Really, really, really good. Well written instructions about tossing the spaghetti. Quick to make. I used regular bacon because this is how my mom always made it. Personally I like more bacon than the recipe called for (maybe pancetta is saltier so the quantity in the recipe is better when followed to a t)
