Top 6 quick pasta recipes

A little history

Carbonara sauce originated in Italy. Poor Italian coal miners working in the vicinity of Rome sometimes had nothing to eat other than pasta or spaghetti. Local peasants helped. It was always possible to get hold of lard, eggs, milk and homemade cheese from them. This set of products later became the basis for the unique Italian carbonara sauce.

There is a version that carbonara sauce gained fame thanks to the beautiful Sophia Loren. At the very beginning of her creative career, she loved to visit a restaurant where carbonara was excellently prepared. The actress was forced to watch her figure, so the food, consisting only of high-quality natural ingredients, became a favorite not only for herself, but also for her friends.

The recipe for carbonara sauce, moving across countries and continents, was constantly modified and won more and more fans.

Pasta carbonara: recipe with cream

It is impossible to imagine Italian cuisine without the famous pasta. But it is popular not only among Italians. There are also many of her admirers in our area.

This is a dish based on spaghetti. Fried pieces of bacon are added to them. All this is mixed with a special sauce.

The result is a very tasty and nutritious dish. In addition to the classic cooking recipe, there are others that can also surprise you with their taste. But now let's look at the traditional carbonara pasta recipe.

Benefits of the dish

It is not for nothing that the world famous movie star Sophia Loren loved carbonara sauce - it is not only a delight for the stomach, but also a source of easily digestible fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Although the product is high in calories, it harmoniously combines meat, dairy products, vegetables and spices without leaving marks on your waist and hips.

Pork lard contains B vitamins, which help the nervous system function. Rarely found selenium and zinc are present in sufficient quantities in the sauce. They help improve vision and fight cancer cells and tumors. Organic iron helps us deliver oxygen to organs and tissues and improve immunity.

Milk contains many substances that regulate the activity of the gastrointestinal tract and endocrine glands.

Herbs and spices are an additional supplier of minerals and vitamins, a specific brush for the body.

Cooking secrets

Carbonara sauce is primarily intended for use with pasta of any format, be it spaghetti, vermicelli, noodles or other varieties.

At its core, carbonara sauce belongs to the so-called white sauces. But, for example, carbonara sauce intended for pizza undergoes qualitative changes due to the addition of tomatoes, becoming red, spicy, and with a sour taste.

To get real carbonara sauce, you will have to stock up on cured pork cheek prepared using a special technology and homemade goat cheese, which will hit your wallet hard. To avoid unnecessary expenses, enterprising cooks replace expensive ingredients with fried brisket and hard cheeses, adding all kinds of spices and herbs.

Pay attention to the quality of the eggs. Fresh and homemade, whipped with cream or milk, when heat treated they will give the thickness that is needed. Experts advise doing this manipulation in a water bath. To add a milky accent, you can add a little butter.

It is considered correct not to add salt to the sauce, but to cook the pasta in salted water. Some gourmets practice adding mushrooms and chicken to carbonara sauce.

The sauce should not be stored for a long time. Its shelf life is not long - somewhere within 2 days in a refrigerator and a closed container. We warn you that you will get the whole bouquet of emotions only by tasting it freshly prepared and warm.

How can you make carbonara sauce? We will try to share the simplest and most edible recipes at home.

What can you add to the sauce?

• Mushrooms are sometimes added to carbonara sauce for flavor and aroma . It is advisable to take champignons. They need to be fried with bacon.
• Garlic is sometimes replaced with onions or neither is added at all.
• Also, one of the components included in the sauce may be white wine .
• basil to this sauce for flavor, or maybe some other seasoning; you can add your favorite spices to the sauce.
• To make the taste of the cheese in the sauce more pronounced, pieces of Gorgonzola or other blue cheese .
• Also, some people prepare sauce without cream; instead, they make sauce with sour cream or milk

Carbonara sauce a la Italy (classic)

For 4 servings we will need:

• pork belly - half a kilo (it is better to buy fresh at the market);
• fresh milk (3.2%) – 400 ml;
• butter - 2 tbsp. l. (72.5%);
• onions – 200 gr.;
• homemade chicken eggs - 3 pcs.;
• cheese "Suluguni" - 150 gr.;
• dill and parsley - 3 sprigs each;
• ground black pepper - to taste.

Prepare cream sauce (Italian carbonara) as follows:

• Peel the onions and rinse the greens under running water. Finely chop the onion and leave the herbs to dry on a napkin.
• Using a sharp knife, chop the brisket into thin strips.
• In a non-stick frying pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and fry the onion until golden brown. This will take approximately 10-12 minutes.
• Place the meat strips here and, stirring, dry them for another ten minutes.
• Grate the suluguni on a fine grater (for greater effect, first keep it in the refrigerator).
• Wash the eggs, separate the yolks (whites are no longer needed) and place them in a stainless saucepan. Add the remaining oil and beat the egg-butter mixture at high speed with a mixer or blender. Then heat it over low heat, stirring constantly until the temperature reaches 50-60°C.
• Without removing the pan from the stove, add milk in a thin stream. Cook for five minutes.
• Let's chop the green stuff smaller.
• Combine all ingredients in a bowl and add pepper. Mix with a spoon. There is no need to add salt; there should be enough salt from the cheese.
• Serve warm, pouring over the hot side dish.

Classic pasta recipe with Carbonara sauce

Kitchen utensils: two-liter saucepan, frying pan, grater, knife, slicing board, colander, large salad bowl.

Required Ingredients

Choosing pasta

• To prepare Carbonara pasta, tagliatelle durum wheat pasta is used. Outwardly, they are similar to our homemade noodles, only twisted in the form of a nest. For Carbonara pasta, it doesn’t matter whether you spin them during cooking or not. The main thing is to cook them al dente.
• Another option would be pasta that differs slightly in length and width: fettuccine, linguine, pappardelle.
• Carbonara sauce, prepared according to the classic recipe, can also be used for spaghetti.
• Spirals, feathers and shells are rarely used to prepare Carbonara pasta, but if they are the only ones in your arsenal, then use them without hesitation. Although it is better to prepare Bolognese sauce for curly pasta.
• The pasta should be cooked in a sufficient amount of salted water: the ratio of the volume of water to the weight of the pasta should be at least 5:1.
• The average portion of pasta is 100 g dry.

Did you know? Don't be afraid to over-salt durum wheat pasta: it will take as much salt as it needs.

What is "al dente"

When preparing pasta, they adhere to a specific time so that after heat treatment the elasticity that can be felt by the tooth is preserved (hence the name “to the tooth”). Pasta cooked “al dente” holds its shape, does not stick together, and, most importantly, does not contribute to weight gain.

Let's do some bacon

• You can buy ready-packed Italian pancetta. This is pork meat with layers of lard, cured with salt, rosemary and sage.
• It will be cheaper to buy a domestic product, freeze it a little in the freezer and cut it thinly into strips.

How to replace Parmesan

This expensive product can be replaced with other long-ripening hard cheeses:

• Lithuanian "Rokiskis" or "Dziugas";
• Italian "Grana Padano";
• our cheeses that have been in the refrigerator and dried out - “Russian”, “Dutch”, but they are better suited to Bechamel sauce.

Step-by-step preparation of Carbonara pasta

1. Fill a saucepan with water and bring to a boil.
2. Boil the tagliatelle until al dente. If you use pancetta, you don't need to add salt to the pasta. If our bacon, then add 1/2 tbsp to the water. l. salt. Tagliatelle is cooked for 5 minutes after boiling.
3. While the pasta is cooking, place a frying pan on the heat and add oil.
4. Cut the pancetta into thin strips, add to the heated oil, fry until crispy.

5. Drain the bacon in a colander to remove excess fat. Place in a salad bowl.

6. Drain the finished pasta, return to the pan and beat in the yolks, stir.

7. Place the pasta in a salad bowl and stir.

8. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.

All manipulations must be carried out quickly while the pasta is hot: the yolks will be cooked and the cheese will melt.

Video of the technology for preparing Carbonara pasta

Cooking the dish does not require any special culinary skills. But to prepare a portion, a certain skill is required. Notice how an experienced chef does this.

For spicy food lovers, serve garlic sauce.

Carbonara sauce with eggplant and sour cream for spaghetti

Let's take:

• 400 gr. sour cream;
• 500-600g. eggplant;
• 3 table. spoons of tomato paste;
• 5-6 cloves of garlic;
• 300 gr. bacon;
• 40-50 ml. refined vegetable oil;
• 100 gr. any hard cheese;
• a pinch of hops-suneli;
• salt - to taste.

We create:

• First, peel the garlic and finely chop it.
• Wash the eggplants, remove the stem and tip. If the “little blue” ones are too big, they will most likely taste bitter. To avoid such trouble, they must first be soaked for 20 minutes in salted water, cut into wheels. Young fruits do not require additional processing.
• Cut the bacon and eggplant into small cubes.
• Pour oil into a saucepan and simmer the eggplant-bacon mixture, as well as the garlic, for 15-17 minutes over medium heat under the lid, stirring occasionally.
• Add sour cream and tomato paste here and mix. Let it sit for five minutes.
• Grind the cheese.
• Turn off the gas and add seasoning and cheese slurry (shavings) to the saucepan and add some salt.
• Serve separately in a plate, or mix spaghetti and sauce in advance.

Process of making pasta carbonara

Preparation of pasta consists of the following steps:

1. First of all, you need to start preparing the creamy sauce. To do this, grate the Parmesan on a fine grater. Then put it in a bowl.
2. Add spices, cream and egg yolks to the cheese. The ingredients must be mixed thoroughly and then set aside.
3. Let's start cooking spaghetti. To do this, they need to be boiled in a large amount of water, which should be salted. Cook spaghetti until al dente.
4. Now take the bacon, which needs to be cut into thin strips.
5. We also prepare the garlic. It can be passed through a press or simply finely chopped.
6. Heat a frying pan in which you want to fry the bacon without adding oil. This should be done over medium heat for several minutes.
7. Add garlic to the bacon, then fry the food for a few more minutes.
8. We also add the cooked spaghetti to the frying pan, then pour in the sauce. The ingredients must be quickly mixed and removed from the heat. From the heat that will come from the pasta, the egg yolks in the sauce will quickly reach readiness.

Carbonara pasta is usually served hot. To decorate the dish, sprinkle it with grated Parmesan and chopped parsley. You will get a very tasty carbonara pasta with bacon, the recipe for which is quite simple. This dish is perfect for lunch, as it is filling and very nutritious, and is also quick to prepare.

Sauce for mushroom carbonara with cream and chicken

Let's stock up:

• raw chicken breast 0.2 kg;
• ham 200 grams;
• wheat flour 50 grams;
• 10 percent cream 1 cup;
• champignons 5-6 pieces;
• processed cheese with ham flavor – 1 pc.;
• odorless sunflower oil - 3 tbsp;
• cumin - 1 tsp;
• salt, ground black pepper and bay leaf - at your discretion.

Cooking method:

• To begin with, let’s cook the breast with bay leaves and add some salt to the water (it will take 30 minutes until done). Set aside the broth. Grind the chicken meat in a blender.
• Wash the mushrooms with water. Divide the cheese into 6-8 parts.
• Then, on a cutting board, carefully cut the champignons and ham into equal pieces.
• Pour flour into a hot frying pan and, without allowing it to burn, brown until light brown. Pour it into a cup and let it cool.
• In the same frying pan, adding oil, fry the mushrooms with ham, seasoning with cumin and pepper. A little salt won't hurt. After 15-20 minutes, add the minced chicken. Let's simmer for another 5 minutes.
• Place the prepared flour into a ladle, pour in a glass of broth and cream, and beat with a whisk so that there are no lumps. Let's heat it up. When the liquid becomes hot enough, dissolve the cheese in it and cook until thick (3-4 minutes).
• Pour the thick cheese mixture into the meat and mushroom filling. Let's cook for a couple more minutes. The dish is ready!

Pasta with mushrooms

An easy recipe, it will take very little time to prepare the dish, and you will definitely like the result. The following products are used to prepare pasta:

• Spaghetti (300 grams).
• Ham (200 grams).
• Mushrooms (150 grams).
• Parmesan (200 grams).
• Carbonara sauce.
• Fresh cream (150 grams).
• Oregano and basil.
• Spices.

Cooking process:

1. First of all, you need to finely chop the mushrooms and ham.
2. Heat a frying pan, add olive oil, then add mushrooms and ham. Fry for 15 minutes and then add cream. After this, turn the heat to low and simmer the food. When the mixture thickens, add greens to it.
3. Boil spaghetti in salted water. The principle of their preparation is the same as in the previous recipe.
4. When the spaghetti is cooked, place it on plates and top with carbonara sauce. Then sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.

Now the pasta can be served, and the sooner the better.