For the legendary classic version, try our always-popular Spaghetti Carbonara! As much as I love to cook and hanging out in the kitchen is one of my winding down times, I can’t imagine how I would survive without super speedy recipes that come together in 10-15 minutes. Pasta carbonara is one of those recipes. I learned making it from my friend Angela who is 100% Italian and proud. The main lesson I learned from her about Italian cooking is that the key to mastering Italian dishes is improvisation and simplicity. Making proper pasta carbonara requires both of those. It’s a dish that is thrown together with when fridge content is scarce. Cheap and easy to cook, with no rigid formula to follow, made special with a bit of creative flair! So in the spirit of Italian cooking philosophy I present you this somewhat improvised recipe.
Ideas for pasta dinner
This is how it came together. I had a lot of egg-wash sitting around after making sausage rolls and didn’t want to send it down the drain. Also sitting in my fridge were four fresh lasagna sheets. It’s tough to make lasagna from four sheets, but that doesn’t mean it needs to go to waste. I decided to cut the lasagna into strips roughly the size of pappardelle. With the egg whites, some pancetta and parmesan cheese and arugula (rocket in the UK) I had on hand, I had everything I needed for a delicious version of carbonara! That’s another reason why easy recipes like carbonara that use only a few ingredients can be so important to master. Because they are unfussy, they serve as a great base to a bit of spontaneity. By starting with the base of traditional carbonara, you can play around with it as much as you want. Using carbonara as a foundation, you can experiment with different shapes of pasta, or add other ingredients. The only limit is your creativity!
More quick pasta recipes
Mushroom carbonara 5-minute ravioli sauce Pasta cream sauce Creamy mustard chicken pasta
