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Bucatini carbonara is an easy mid-week meal with a gourmet flair.
Bucatini Carbonara–Quick And Easy
This delicious pasta dish is so easy to make, it qualifies for a quick mid-week meal. There’s really nothing to it.
If you can fry bacon and boil up some pasta, you have it made. Bucatini carbonara is one of those meals where meat is purely a condiment. And as luck would have it, that meat is everyone’s favorite; bacon. OK if you want to get technical and be a true gourmet, bacon is standing in for pancetta here. However, I don’t know many people who have pancetta on hand but most of us have some bacon kicking around.
About The Pasta
Bucatini is a thick strand with a hole in the center–sort of a very thin elongated elbow. You won’t find this is store-label pasta. You will in premium brands.
If you want to get adventurous, you can make your own pasta. What you see here is my own homemade bucatini. The disk to make this comes with the KitchenAid extruder so I figured why not. I love making my own pasta because the difference in taste though subtle is better in my opinion. If you don’t have a bucatini disk, thick spaghetti will do very nicely and most pasta machines come with a thick spaghetti disk.
My basic formula for an extruded pasta is a mix of semolina, all-purpose flour and water. I will give the recipe in the card below. FYI–when it comes to making pasta, I always weigh the ingredients. Weighing is important for consistent great results. My recipe is European so the weights are in grams. Don’t be put off–all modern kitchen scales weigh in both systems so just choose grams.
About The Eggs
The type of eggs you use here is important.
Since the heat of the just-cooked pasta is what is going to “cook” the egg, it’s important to use organic or pastured eggs. I get my fresh pastured eggs from a neighbor who keeps chickens, so I don’t have to worry about salmonella. If you don’t have that kind of access to eggs, then either get what I mentioned before or so-called pasteurized eggs. Cage-free eggs are OK too.
The Recipe
Bucatini Carbonara
Ingredients
- 6 slices bacon cooked crisp and crumbled
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbs bacon drippings
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
- 12 oz bucatini cooked per package directions
- 1/2 cup pasta water
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- Salt & pepper to taste
Pasta Dough (if making your own)
- 200 g semolina pasta flour
- 50 g all-purpose flour
- 90 g water
Instructions
- Sauté garlic in the reserved bacon drippings; set aside.
- Drain masta but reserve 1/2 cup of the water. Place the hot pasta in a large bowl. Add the beaten eggs and toss to coat.
- Mix in the reserved pasta water, grated cheese, bacon, garlic with bacon drippings and chopped parsley. Add salt & pepper if required.
- Serve immediately.
