This spaghetti carbonara uses a handful of staple ingredients. It is quite possibly the easiest pasta dish to make!

Whisking a little bit of the reserved pasta water with the eggs ensures the egg sauce is silky and creamy. It doesn’t take very long to cook the eggs. The residual heat from the pasta is enough to bring the eggs to a safe temperature. To be safe, it’s a good idea to heat the sauce over the stove for a minute. Don’t cook it too long. You don’t wanted the eggs to curdle. Serves three.

Ingredients

250g dried spaghetti

125g smoked chopped bacon or lardons

1 minced garlic clove

2 large eggs

50g grated Parmesan (or Pecorino Romano)

Method

Cook spaghetti to al dente. Reserve about 50ml of pasta cooking water. Drain pasta and set aside.

Cook the bacon in a large deep frying pan until crisp. Remove bacon pieces and allow to drain on a paper towel lined plate. Keep rendered bacon fat in the pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, grated cheese, salt, black pepper, and two tablespoons of reserved pasta water until smooth. Set aside.

Heat frying pan with bacon fat over medium heat. Once hot, add minced garlic. Stir and cook until fragrant and lightly browned, about 45-60 seconds. Add cooked pasta and bacon. Toss to combine.

Pour in egg mixture. Quickly toss to coat pasta in sauce while the heat is still on, about 30-40 seconds. At this point, the ’sauce’ should have thickened. Remove from heat.

If sauce is too thick, add in splash of reserved pasta water. Season with additional cheese and black pepper, as desired. Serve immediately.