As promised on my Insta-Stories, this is the first post in my Italian pasta step-by-step series!! If you try one of these recipes, post on your story and tag me (@chlo__e___) I want to see!! I am actually really excited about this because I hold food very close to my heart and it makes me even happier to be able to share this with someone! I don’t know about you guys, but I have been cooking a LOT more than usual in this quarantine and I am honestly running out of meal ideas so I hope this gives you some inspiration for a meal this week.

For those that are new here, I have been living in Rome, Italy for almost 8 months now, and I recently had an idea to share some of the pasta recipes I have learned so far by making easy step-by-step guides! Let me know how it goes in the comments 🙂

Ok, ok, I won’t waste your time too much with the backstory — Let’s get cooking!

What you’ll need:

• 12oz of spaghetti
• 5oz of guanciale*
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 eggs
• 2oz of Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated
• black pepper
• sea salt

*Guanciale is Italian cured pork cheek — its pretty fatty and gives a lot of flavor to the sauce. Thick bacon can substitute if you can’t find it but don’t ever tell an Italian I said that lol.

Step-By-Step!

1. Get a large pot and boil about 6 qts. of water (I usually eyeball it, who has time to measure pasta water??) and add a good ol’ pinch of salt. Don’t be shy.

2. While you are waiting on the water to boil, prep your guanciale and cheese. Finely grate the cheese and cut up yo meat! Set aside a little bit of cheese for topping later. Here we can buy guanciale already cubed, but if that’s not the case for you, cut it into small pieces like I have here in this photo:

3. Don’t forget to add pasta to the boiling water! Cook guanciale on medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until crisped and golden/brown on the outside. When finished cooking, remove guanciale from heat but leave it in the pan, we are going to use it in a second.

4. While the guanciale is cooking, whisk your 4 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs in a bowl until it’s a solid yellow color, and stir in the grated cheese. Grate some sea salt and black pepper in there and don’t be shy with the pepper! The pepper gives it a nice spice.

5. Cook pasta 2 minutes shy of what the package tells you, and just before draining the pasta, scoop out a cup or so of pasta water from the pot.

6. Add about a 1/4 cup of pasta water to the pan of guanciale that you set aside, add the drained pasta into the pan with it, and mix as pictured below:

7. My pan was a little small so we switched over to a bowl — But slowly mix in the egg mixture to the hot pasta and stir it in as you pour until the noodles have a nice, glossy finish and the cheese has melted.

8. Top each serving with pepper and reserved cheese and BAM! You just made authentic Italian Carbonara!!

I hope you enjoy this and leave a comment/DM me if you need me to clarify anything!! Can’t wait to see how yours turns out. Next recipe coming your way soon!

Ciao ciao!

Chloe