Michael and I often talk about our favorite meal of our trip to Italy: the pasta carbonara at da Enzo al 29.
Impossibly silky, rich, and savory, carbonara is my desert-island meal. But back home from Italy, we soon discovered that Florida is a desert island for carbonara lovers. Well, what do you do? You make your own.
This post contains affiliate links and I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking one of these links (at no additional cost to you!). Thank you for your support!
da Enzo actually sells its dried pasta online, but as it’s often sold out, we usually go through the trouble of making fresh pasta when we want carbonara.
It’s more simple than I imagined to make your own pasta, and you don’t even really need any special equipment! I’ve considered purchasing a pasta roller, but have been making do for so long that it’s discouraged me from ordering one.
The sauce ingredients are pretty standard too – eggs, pancetta (or slab bacon, though guanciale is traditional yet harder to find), cheese, salt, and pepper. My only insistence here? Buy the best ingredients you can afford. You don’t always need top-of-the-line ingredients in recipes, but when there aren’t many ingredients in a recipe, buying the best you can makes a huge difference.
So, how easy is it to make fresh pasta carbonara? Well, the recipe is more hands-off than hands-on:
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS: PASTA CARBONARA
Step 1: Gather your pasta ingredients
Step 2: Weigh them
(yes – a scale makes everything easy, error-free, and you don’t end up with as many dishes!).
Step 3: Add your eggs to the center of your flours
Step 4: Mix and knead your dough, either by hand or with a mixer until it all comes together in a nice, easy-to-manage ball
Step 5: Let the dough rest for an hour, and begin rolling in small sections and cut into desired shapes/sizes
Step 6: Finish the dish (you’re almost there!) by cooking the pancetta (or guanciale, if you’re lucky enough to find it) until just rendered and beginning to crisp
Step 7: While it cooks, create the egg and cheese base of the sauce
Step 8: Boil a kettle of water and pour it into a clean serving bowl – this warms the bowl and helps heat the eggs (you’ll see!)
Step 9: Bring a medium-to-large pot of water to a boil, and salt generously (as salty as the sea) before adding the pasta in batches
Since it’s fresh pasta, it only takes a couple of minutes to cook al dente.
Step 10: Once cooked, add the pasta to your pancetta pan and cook for one minute over low heat
Step 11: This is the hardest part, promise: quickly dump out your serving bowl of water, and add the egg and cheese mixture. Toss pasta in the sauce until coated, and grate additional cheese on top if desired.
Step 12: Enjoy while still very hot!
Fresh Pasta Recipe
(adapted from David Lebovitz) Yield: about 3/4 lb
Ingredients
100 grams semolina flour
100 grams all-purpose flour
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
Directions
Combine flours in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached. Add eggs, and stir gently with a fork to initiate mixing. Turn mixer to the kneading setting (this is setting 2 on a Kitchenaid), and knead until all flour is absorbed and the dough cleans the bowl, and continue kneading for another three minutes. Remove dough from mixer and wrap in plastic wrap to rest for an hour.
Alternatively, if you don’t have a stand mixer, combine flours into a mound on a clean countertop and create a well in the center. Add eggs, and begin pulling small amounts of flour from the walls into the center of the well, slowly bringing the dough together with your hands (it will get sticky, but that’s part of the fun!). Continue until dough forms into a workable mass, and knead for five minutes. Wrap in plastic, and let rest for an hour.
To shape pasta, roll and cut according to your pasta rollers’ instructions.
If you don’t have a pasta roller, lightly dust your dry, clean countertop with all-purpose flour, and roll one-quarter of the dough into your desired length and thickness (we tend to roll ours to 12- or 14-inch lengths, about as thin as a dime). Using a dough cutter, sharp knife, or pizza cutter, slice pasta dough into strips of desired width. We tend to work quickly, so our noodles are quite rustic and vary in width. Coat with a very light dusting of flour, and set aside. Continue working with the next three-quarters of the dough until complete.
Pasta Carbonara Recipe
Adapted from NYT Cooking
Ingredients
4 ounces pancetta, thick bacon, or guanciale sliced into 1/4-inch cubes or 1/4-inch x 1-inch lardons
3 large eggs and 2 large yolks (at room temperature)
1 ounce (about 1/3 packed cup) grated pecorino Romano, plus additional for serving
1 ounce (about 1/3 packed cup) grated Parmesan
Sea salt
Coarsely ground black pepper
1 recipe fresh pasta (or 3/4-lb dry pasta)
Directions
Place pancetta/bacon in a large, cold skillet. Turn stove to medium heat, and cook stirring occasionally, until the fat renders and the pork is beginning to turn crisp on the outside but is still somewhat chewy. Remove from heat.
Meanwhile, whisk eggs and egg yolks together until thoroughly combined. Add cheeses, and salt and pepper to taste, and combine.
Fill a kettle or pot with water, and bring to a boil. Pour water into a glass or porcelain serving bowl to warm.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta, stirring occasionally, and cook for three minutes (or according to instructions) until al dente.
Add cooked pasta to pancetta/bacon skillet (return to heat if necessary), and toss until well-mixed. Empty the water out of the serving bowl, and add the egg mixture. Quickly add the pasta mixture and toss with tongs to coat. Serve immediately, topping with additional cheese if desired.
—
This meal is definitely worth the effort! I’m heading out of town for the weekend, so I’ll see you here next Thursday! In the meantime, be sure to follow along on Instagram!
Have you ever made homemade pasta before? What is your “desert island” meal?
Enjoyed this post? You may also like:
- Pistachio Ice Cream Recipe
- Pre-Trip Pizza Recipe
- New York-Style Bagels Recipe
- Enjoying a Vacation Tradition at Home: Serving up Three Effortless Apéritifs with Le Moné
- Everything Cookies Recipe
- Five Easy Meals
- International Holiday Recipe: Æbleskiver
- Recipe: Liege Waffles
- How to Brew Coffee at Home with Chemex
- Recipe: Swedish Sticky Chocolate Cake (Kladdkaka)
- Vegan Irish Cream Recipe
- A Review of da Enzo al 29 in Rome, Italy
- Lost in Translation: My Unexpected Trip to an Italian Emergency Room
- How to Avoid Tourist Trap Restaurants
- Travel Guides by Destination
