Looks good, did you preheat your plate before serving?
Renizance on
Did you perhaps add too much water? It looks like the sauce looks cloudy. Also the pasta water should be saturated with that lovely starch. Boil the pasta with less water to condense the starch extract during pasta cooking phase.
I_Sett on
I’ll be honest, this doesn’t look like a great example of carbonara. I’ve been working on getting better at this dish as a home cook for the past year and maybe I can make a few suggestions:
It looks watery and broken. If you’re using guancialle (and it doesn’t look like it) you probably need a higher fat content on your pasta before you add the egg/cheese and pasta water. Cook down your guancialle pretty thoroughly on low heat.
Toss your pasta in your pan with your fat to fully coat it. I do this in a cast iron pan that I cooked my meat in. I then transfer to a separate bowl with my eggs and cheese tempered slightly with my cooking water. Add pasta water until it’s just a bit thinner than you’d like (it’ll thicken up on its own if done right) and stir stir stir
You can also add a spoonful of flour to your cooking water prior to cooking your pasta to get that thick pasta-water like a restaurant would get (I also save mine between batches)
NGroark87 on
How much cheese did you use? I generally use 30g-50g per egg. Also that does about 90g/100g pasta. Think ratios are quite important. Personally I mix the cheese and eggs in a big bowl. When the pasta is cooked I then add it to the cured pork with a little cooking water and cook it briefly – I then add this to the egg mix and stir quickly to prevent it scrambling the eggs – I’ve always found this more reliable than adding the egg to the hot pan, as even with the heat off it often overcooks in my experience, but each to their own I guess.
SingleDraftSteve on
Jesus that’s a lot of liquid….
JerkGurk on
It’s a dish that sounds easy but to make it perfect definitely takes skill. I’ve made a few good ones, and a few okay ones. I bet it tasted alright, because all the ingredients in this dish are pretty damn delicious.
Jordan3176 on
2 eggs + 1 yolk, whisked with grated Parmesan.
Cook the pasta and cook the guanciale, throw cooked pasta into the pan. Make sure it’s not too hot, add your egg and parm mixture.
You are looking for a really rich creamy texture, there should be no watery consistency. Adding a tiny bit of pasta water is needed but you have to be careful.
Carbonara done well has a fine line between making scrambled eggs and pasta, or perfect creamy carbonara. Practice makes perfect.
On paper it’s the easiest meal to make, but it takes skill to master it.
Lelu_zel on
Too much liquid
Waramp on
People are commenting a lot on the appearance, which is valid, but I bet it was fucking delicious!
RoninGin on
Looks like your sauce broke
Sarah_Whitman11 on
Looks amazing
Tall_Bread_3139 on
Honestly, you probably could have just cranked the stovetop to high and just kept tossing everything, and eventually the liquid would’ve dispersed, the fat and the cream and the egg would’ve emulsified. Lord knows I’ve made one or two watery sauces, not one of them couldn’t be fixed with more heat. I say this because people often forget that there’s starch in that pasta water, which in time would thicken any sauce.
14 Comments
Did you add cream?
Looks good, did you preheat your plate before serving?
Did you perhaps add too much water? It looks like the sauce looks cloudy. Also the pasta water should be saturated with that lovely starch. Boil the pasta with less water to condense the starch extract during pasta cooking phase.
I’ll be honest, this doesn’t look like a great example of carbonara. I’ve been working on getting better at this dish as a home cook for the past year and maybe I can make a few suggestions:
It looks watery and broken. If you’re using guancialle (and it doesn’t look like it) you probably need a higher fat content on your pasta before you add the egg/cheese and pasta water. Cook down your guancialle pretty thoroughly on low heat.
Toss your pasta in your pan with your fat to fully coat it. I do this in a cast iron pan that I cooked my meat in. I then transfer to a separate bowl with my eggs and cheese tempered slightly with my cooking water. Add pasta water until it’s just a bit thinner than you’d like (it’ll thicken up on its own if done right) and stir stir stir
You can also add a spoonful of flour to your cooking water prior to cooking your pasta to get that thick pasta-water like a restaurant would get (I also save mine between batches)
How much cheese did you use? I generally use 30g-50g per egg. Also that does about 90g/100g pasta. Think ratios are quite important. Personally I mix the cheese and eggs in a big bowl. When the pasta is cooked I then add it to the cured pork with a little cooking water and cook it briefly – I then add this to the egg mix and stir quickly to prevent it scrambling the eggs – I’ve always found this more reliable than adding the egg to the hot pan, as even with the heat off it often overcooks in my experience, but each to their own I guess.
Jesus that’s a lot of liquid….
It’s a dish that sounds easy but to make it perfect definitely takes skill. I’ve made a few good ones, and a few okay ones. I bet it tasted alright, because all the ingredients in this dish are pretty damn delicious.
2 eggs + 1 yolk, whisked with grated Parmesan.
Cook the pasta and cook the guanciale, throw cooked pasta into the pan. Make sure it’s not too hot, add your egg and parm mixture.
You are looking for a really rich creamy texture, there should be no watery consistency. Adding a tiny bit of pasta water is needed but you have to be careful.
Carbonara done well has a fine line between making scrambled eggs and pasta, or perfect creamy carbonara. Practice makes perfect.
On paper it’s the easiest meal to make, but it takes skill to master it.
Too much liquid
People are commenting a lot on the appearance, which is valid, but I bet it was fucking delicious!
Looks like your sauce broke
Looks amazing
Honestly, you probably could have just cranked the stovetop to high and just kept tossing everything, and eventually the liquid would’ve dispersed, the fat and the cream and the egg would’ve emulsified. Lord knows I’ve made one or two watery sauces, not one of them couldn’t be fixed with more heat. I say this because people often forget that there’s starch in that pasta water, which in time would thicken any sauce.
I would destroyyyyy that. Nice