This recipe for Spagetti Carbonara is one that Simon and I made up when we had no idea what we wanted for tea, had a few eggs and some bacon and decided to have a go at Carbonara. Now we didn't have all the ingredients for a classic Carbonara, so we improvised and came up with something even nicer.

A word of warning though there is a high risk of this sauce turning into scrambled eggs. The eggs add a richness to the sauce, if you are not confident miss the eggs out as whilst the sauce is perfectly edible it has a grainy texture if the eggs start to scramble and you might find that unpleasant.

Please note that I have included thois recipe in the scrambled egg section not because you want the sauce to end up like scrambled eggs, but because you don't.

Link to measurement conversion chart

This recipe serves  3-4 people.

Ingredients

• Spaghetti – 75g per person
• 1 pack of pancetta
• 6 medium button mushrooms finely chopped
• 100g hard goats cheese grated– use parmesan as an alternative
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 200ml double cream
• 2 eggs beaten, add an extra yolk if you have one to make the sauce extra rich.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Grated parmesan to taste
• A splash of olive oil

You will also need

• A small saucepan for your sauce
• A large saucepan for your spaghetti

Method

1. Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling water until Al-dente – approx. 8 mins
2. Whilst the spaghetti is cooking add the oil to a saucepan and crisp up the bacon, reduce the heat then add the onions, garlic and mushrooms and cook until softened.
3. Add the cream, goats cheese and a little pepper to the pan, heat through stirring continuously until the cheese has melted. Remove from the heat.
4. Pour the spaghetti into a colander to drain and serve into warmed bowls.
5. Adjust the seasoning of the cooling sauce then add the eggs, stir to mix and serve immediately
6. Sprinkle a little parmesan over the top with a little chopped parsley if you have any.
7. Eat and enjoy!

Serving suggestions and variations

• The classic sauce has no onions or mushrooms and uses Pecorino cheese. Goats cheese is a good substitute and we usually have some in the fridge. If you don’t have either parmesan will do or a strong cheddar.
• If you are trying to impress and do not want to risk scrambled eggs instead of a rich smooth sauce, miss out the eggs
• Crème fraiche is a good alternative to double cream
• The classic recipe uses 4 tbsp of cream but we like plenty of sauce so I have increased it. Use less cream if you want a lighter meal.
• Don’t add too much salt, there is plenty in the cheese
• Try tagliatelli instead of spaghetti, any pasta shape will do but the texture of spaghetti or tagliatelli make these pasta’s a nicer meal experience
• John likes a knob of butter on his spaghetti, you might like to give it a go, add at stage 4
• if you have any sausages leftover from breakfast, chop them up and heat through as an alternative to bacon.
• We quite often add a few chopped mushrooms to ours, see the picture below. Adds a bit of extra texture and flavour.

Acknowledgements

Like bolognaise sauce there are loads of variations on the classic carbonara and rarely do we ever have an identical meal when we cook either of these at home. I guess I must have first tried a carbonara at a local Italian restaurant but have used my “Good Cooks Library – Pasta Cookbook” for reference when I cook a carbonara at home. I have cooked it myself many times but rarely using the correct ingredients as it is a store cupboard recipe for me and therefore I use whatever I have to hand, it usually tastes great but there is an art to getting the eggs right.

You might also like to try some of these other recipes from our collection

• For a hearty lunch or supper our French Onion Soup is well worth the try, use cheddar instead of Gruyere and it becomes a store cupboard meal.
• Looking for something tasty to do with your sprouts then try peas and sprouts, a little chopped bacon makes all the difference!
• Carrot cake is one that even the most carrot avoiding will love to eat. This one is low fat as well.

Happy eating!