Italian · Main
Carbonara
Roman carbonara with a temperature-controlled sabayon finish — glossy, never scrambled, even when the pass is moving
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- spaghetti or fresh tonnarelli — 400 g
- guanciale, 1 cm lardons — 180 g
- egg yolks — 6
- whole egg — 1
- Pecorino Romano, grated — 90 g
- black pepper, coarsely ground — 5 g
- fine salt — for the water
Method
- Render guanciale from a cold pan over medium-low heat until glassy and golden, 8 minutes. Keep fat and lardons separate off the heat.
- Whisk yolks, egg, pecorino and pepper to a thick paste.
- Boil pasta in lightly salted water to al dente; reserve 300 ml water.
- Whisk 100 ml hot pasta water into the egg paste to temper it.
- Toss pasta in the guanciale pan (off heat) with the fat and a splash of water.
- Add the egg cream and stir vigorously over the lowest flame — or just the pan's residual heat — until it thickens to 65°C and coats like custard.
- Fold in lardons; adjust with water to a flowing gloss.