Did They Eat It: Spaghetti Carbonara

The other day I sent out some smoke signals on Twitter. The smoke signals said, "Help! I'm a suburban housewife and I don't know what to make for dinner." Then I put a finger on my cheek and looked vaguely helpless and 100 strangers favorited my picture on Flickr.

Then I got this note, a version of spaghetti carbonara that is immensely simplified and easy to prepare. If you're a spaghetti carbonara purist, please don't read any further because I know. There's no wine or cream or any of the things that MUST be in carbonara. This is going to be our special version everyone!

Here are your ingredients: pasta, cooked, crumbled bacon, parmesan, garlic, salt and pepper, one large head of broccoli chopped and eggs.

Get your self a big enough pot, and put the water onto boil. This is big enough but you'll see later why a bigger pot would have been helpful.

Take four eggs, on Easter Logan grabbed some eggs at the gas station because I ran out. Gas station eggs are exactly as scary as you think.

Add to the eggs, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese.

Next add one teaspoon of minced garlic.

Salt to taste.

Pepper to taste.

Ready to be mixed.

Mixed. At this point I was in a race against the clock to get this made before Logan and the kids saw this concoction. I knew they'd freak out.

Add your pasta to the boiling water and cook according to package directions.

Depending on how you like your broccoli cooked, dump it into the pasta water when you have 2-4 minutes of cooking time left.

Here it is. Cooking.

Before you drain the pasta, grab about 1 cup of pasta water out of the pot and set aside.

Drain the pasta and return to pan on stovetop (turned off). This is where things get hectic for a minute or two.

Immediately pour the egg and cheese mixture into the pasta and broccoli

And stir! Stir it alot. The heat from the pasta cooks the egg and melts the cheese so make sure you get it all stirred around. If it's too dry add about 1/2 cup of the reserved water.

Stir until your arm hurts. If you get distracted during this step you can heat the pan up, with very low heat, while you stir.

I probably could have used a slightly bigger pan because this is what came flying out of my pan while I vigorously stirred.

When you're done stirring pour everything into a large serving dish and put the bacon on top. I was afraid Maddie would take all the bacon and not leave any for the rest of us. So I mixed it up with the pasta. Next time I'll make perfectly even portions of bacon and sprinkle some on top of each person's serving.

Ready to go!

Skeptical Maddie. Also a little pissed.

Did They Eat It?

Logan: Actual call while I was making this
"What's Spaghetti Carbonara?" (I could hear him wincing into the phone).
"Look it's got bacon in it. You'll be fine."
"Oh, okay."
And the bacon did make it okay, He liked it.

Max: Loved it and ate it for lunch the next day.

Madison: This was one of the most annoying meals I've ever watched my daughter eat. She "did not like it" so she ate the bacon and one. strand. of. spaghetti. AT A TIME. It was hideously painful and then, after she ate half the plate, strand by painful strand, she said, "I really hate this."

Melissa: This was so good I can't believe I've never eaten it before.

You can download the recipe by clicking here (PDF).

Comments

[May]

Well I thought this was the one and only way to make REAL spaghetti carbonara. Only we leave out the broccoli, that sounds like an invention of someone who knows there aren't enough vitamins and nutrients in spaghetti or bacon and wants to fix it. Thanks for the tip, though, it's been a while since we ate this!

[Slim]

An former boyfriend with an Italian mom would scoff at the suggestion that carbonara is supposed to have cream or wine in it. (He wouldn't approve of the garlic or broccoli, either, but how can those be bad? Unless you're Maddie or something, that is.)
Bacon makes all things right.

[~T]

My Italian grandma would fry whole cloves of garlic in the bacon grease and then remove them and toss all of it (bacon grease and bacon) in with the pasta. So unhealthy but tastes awesome.No broccoli. We eat this all the time because the ingredients are usually on hand.

[Valerie]

Spaghetti Carbonara is one of my all time favorite dishes (my mom makes it with peas instead of broccoli and also throws in some sauteed onions...ha) and one of the reasons I hate my boyfriend a little bit for not liking bacon. Who doesn't like bacon??? I'm living vicariously through your meal...

[Dana Ansel]

Ok - I had the exact same suburban mom moment yesterday and remembered that once before I had made spaghetti carbonara, which everyone had loved and devoured. I don't think "real" carbonara has cream or wine in it. Yours - minus the broccoli (which is a great idea)- sounds pretty authentic to me! Glad it was mostly a hit!

[AmyinMotown]

I love Nigella Lawson's carbonara recipe but it is so. bad. for. you. Cream, wine, God knows what else. This? this sounds yummy and even perhaps a bit healthier except for the whole bacon issue.

[Leta]

I love it when you do the Did They Eat It segments. It reminds me of a game show, for some reason. And it makes me appreciate my own will-pretty-much-eat-whatever-i-put-in-front-of-them family.

[Mary]

Loved your comments on the pdf file! I would love to try this, but I really don't eat eggs. Is it very egg-y tasting?? Or do you taste the cheese more?

& yes, I'm loads of fun going out to breakfast: "side of hash browns, side of ham, side of fruit..."

[Tricia]

This is our go-to, I-can't-take-whining-tonight, make-everybody-happy meal. Love it!

(And, like others have said: no cream or wine in carbonara. That would be alfredo. So, authenticity points, too!)

[Tiffany]

I love the action shot when you dumped in the broccoli. This sounds excellent... maybe I'll make it one night for dinner!

[Kristin]

This is hands-down the best quick go-to recipe we use! Even better when you try it with pancetta instead of bacon, if you can convince your family to eat it. And props for using a real carbonara recipe...why ruin perfection with cream and wine? I add zucchini to mine in the summer.

[Lin]

Glad you left out the cream...the cheese and pasta water (which is starchy) combine to make their own kinda creamy base for this fantastic pasta dish.

[Linda mcconaughy]

This is exactly what I made for dinner last night. Only with lemon and a little butter added to the eggs. And asparagus instead of broccoli. Yum.

[die Frau]

OK, I'm totally making this, even though we had shrimp fra diavolo last night (soooo good), which is basically pasta, shrimp, mushrooms, and pepper. I'll make it weight-watcher friendly somehow....

[spandrel studios]

Maybe do what my Mom did when I complained too much about her cooking: Assign Madison the chore of cooking dinner 2 nights a week. (And yours looks like a delicious version of carbonara, btw.)

[nelkign]

I love Carbonara. It is so not heart healthy in the original cream laden form, but it's my go to choice if it's on a menu.

Maddie is missing out.

[Kimmers]

I made this tonight and I LOVED IT!!! Will definitely be something I make again and again. Thanks for posting it.

(And if it makes you feel better, my bf would not touch it due to the eggs. And the broccoli. And the cheese. Sigh.)

[aimee]

This sounds great--totally making it later this week. Thanks!

[Rebecca]

Yumm! This totally inspired me to make dinner tonight. Your 'Did they Eat it?"' posts are awesome!

[Virginia]

I made this last night. Fast & Easy - just the way dinner should be. Three enthusiastic thumbs up at our house. Thanks.

[Leeann]

I am so totally making this tomorrow night. Thanks.

[Amber]

Yum!

That looks delicious. Minus the broccoli. The broccoli would totally freak out my kids.

[Lisa]

Love the did they eat it segments. I'm always looking for something new to try but I hate cooking.

I'm going to give this one a try, even though my 8 year old son "hates" all things pasta, but loves Mac & Cheese????

[Michelle]

Made this last night and the kids LOVED It (well except for the broccoli part). Though I wonder if I did something wrong as I didn't end up with the big mess on the stove/floor as you did??!!

[Sarah]

I made this a couple of nights ago and it was a hit with me and my husband. When I asked my husband if he would eat spaghetti carbonara - his response was "Carbonara means bacon, so yes, please make it."

[Amara]

I made this tonight, but forgot to pick up broccoli, so I used frozen peas. Halfway through the mad stirring I realized I don't like liquidy sauce and turned on the flame. I liked it. My kids ate the bacon off the top and some of the spaghetti. My husband inhaled it. I think I might offer it a few more times and see if they don't warm up to the dish.
And I did end up with peas on the floor even though I used my biggest pot.

[Miss Elizabeth]

Melissa, I made this last night with whole-wheat pasta (I haven't been able to find Barilla plus, which is a shame as I think the chickpea flour is a fantastic idea) and subbing leftover maple-glazed turkey for bacon. My boyfriend, into whom I am trying to force more vegetables, LOVED it and wants to have it again very, very soon. Thank you for the simple, wholesome recipe and for the .pdf download thereof!

[MG]

Just joining the chorus to say I made this tonight and yum.

[Phil]

The "stir until your arm hurts" tip was exactly the right amount of time needed. Good call. Came out great.

[Cat]

This sounds SO YUMMY. Can't wait to try it. Hope the court date went as well as can be expected for a court date.

[Beth]

Just had to chime in to say this recipe (minus broccoli) is pretty darn close to what I think is authentic. You may use less bacon fat than we do in the restaurant kitchen but otherwise you're right on the money.

[Rita]

I made this last night with chicken and sauteed onions added. Yummy!