🍝 Carbonara
Also known as: Pasta alla carbonara, Spaghetti alla carbonara, Spaghetti carbonara, Pasta carbonara, Carbonara pasta
A Roman pasta dish of durum-wheat pasta with guanciale, Roman pecorino, eggs (more yolk than white), salt and pepper, with no cream.
Carbonara is a Roman pasta dish of durum-wheat pasta with guanciale, Roman pecorino cheese, eggs (with more yolk than white), salt and freshly ground pepper. Turismo Roma, the tourism site of Rome, calls it one of the city's most representative recipes.
In that recipe the guanciale is cut into small pieces and browned gently in a large pan with a little oil. The eggs are beaten in a deep dish with the cheese and a pinch of salt. The pasta is boiled in plenty of salted water and drained while still firm, then stirred in the pan with the guanciale. Off the heat, the egg mixture and plenty of pepper are added and stirred quickly, so that the eggs turn creamy from the residual heat of the pasta; it is served at once on warm plates. The page stresses 'no cream' and names no pasta shape.
The page calls the origin uncertain and mentions two stories: that the dish descends from 'cacio e ova', made by charcoal burners in the Apennine woods, and that it dates from 1944, when American soldiers liked a version resembling their breakfast of eggs and bacon.
Facts
How it connects to Pasta
🍝 Carbonara → related → 🧀 Parmesan ← related ← 🍝 Pasta
Links
- What is used
- 🍝 Spaghetti, Rigatoni, Mezze maniche, Spaghettoni
- What it contains
- 🥚 Chicken egg
- Traditions
- 🧑🤝🧑 Italians
- Part of
- Pasta sauces and dishes
- Similar and different
- 🍝 Pasta alla gricia, 🍝 Amatriciana, 🍝 Cacio e pepe
- In other topics
- 🧀 Pecorino, Guanciale, 🥓 Cured meats & charcuterie, 🧀 Parmesan
Frequently asked questions
Is it true that carbonara is scrambled eggs on pasta?
No. The eggs are stirred in off the heat so they turn creamy from the pasta's residual heat, not cooked into curds.
Why does a proper carbonara have no cream?
The Rome tourism page stresses it: the creamy sauce comes from eggs, with more yolk than white, and Roman pecorino.
Is carbonara made with bacon, as in a breakfast of eggs and bacon?
The recipe uses guanciale. The bacon link comes only from the story that American soldiers in 1944 liked a version resembling their breakfast.
Which pasta shape is used for carbonara?
Spaghetti is the usual choice, but the dish is defined by the sauce rather than by the shape.
What are charcoal burners' cacio e ova?
One story of origin: a dish of the charcoal burners in the Apennine woods, from which carbonara may descend.
Comparisons
Recipes
What to read next
- 🍝 Spaghetti — Long, thin dry pasta with a round cross-section, made from durum wheat semolina.
- 🥚 Chicken egg — The egg of the domestic hen: in pasta it gives yellow colour, an elastic dough and protein, and in the EU it must be highlighted on labels as an allergen.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Italians — The people of Italy; their cuisine rests on wine, olive oil and cheese, and in 2025 the country made 44.4 million hectolitres of wine, the most in the world.
- 🍝 Pasta alla gricia — A Roman pasta dish with guanciale, Pecorino Romano and pepper; Turismo Roma calls it the white version of amatriciana.
- 🥓 Cured meats & charcuterie — Cured meats and charcuterie are meat products that keep for a long time thanks to salt, drying and fermentation: dry-cured hams, sausages and salo, shelf-stable or lasting over 7 days chilled.
Similar
🍝 Pasta alla gricia · 🍝 Amatriciana · 🍝 Cacio e pepe · 🌶️ Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino · 🍅 Spaghetti alla puttanesca · 🍆 Pasta alla Norma