Spaghetti Carbonara

A simple and fast recipe for spaghetti carbonara (spaghetti alla carbonara): Onion, bacon, garlic, sour cream, egg, white wine and Parmesan cheese are the main ingredients of this sauce. This is one of my favorite pasta recipes.

Ingredients

• 4 oz / 125 g bacon, diced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ cup / 120 ml dry white wine
• ½ cup / 120 ml chicken stock (or water)
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup / 120 ml sour cream
• ½ cup / 120 ml milk
• 1 oz / 30 g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
• ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
• ¼ tsp salt or to taste
• pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 lb / 500 g spaghetti

Preparation

1. Render bacon in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until it starts to brown.
2. Remove excess fat from pan. Add olive oil and chopped onion. Cook until onion is soft and translucent.
3. Add garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
4. Add stock or water and white wine. Reduce heat and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated.
5. Whisk together eggs, sour cream, milk, Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
6. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Drain.
7. Add pasta to pan. Pour egg-and-cream mixture over the pasta. Add parsley.
8. Keep tossing over low-medium heat until the sauce starts to thicken.
9. Adjust seasoning with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Notes

• Traditionally, the sauce is just minimally cooked by tossing the hot pasta with the egg. I'm not a big fan of undercooked eggs, so I always toss the pasta over heat until the sauce thickens.

Preparation time: 30-45 minutes.

Yields about 4 servings.

I got the recipe a long time ago from a friend back in Europe.