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.
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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 guanciale, which is traditional yet more difficult to find, or slab bacon), cheese, salt, and pepper. The one caveat to meals that are made with simple ingredients? You should 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, this 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 the flours in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached. Add the eggs, and stir gently with a fork to initiate mixing. Turn your 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 then continue kneading for another three minutes. Remove the dough from the mixer and wrap it in plastic wrap to rest for an hour.
Alternatively, if you don’t have a stand mixer, combine the flours into a mound on a clean countertop and create a well in the center. Add the 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 the dough forms into a workable mass, and knead for five minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic, and let rest for an hour.
To shape the 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.
I tend to work quickly, so my noodles are quite rustic and vary in width. Coat with a very light dusting of flour, and set aside. Continue working with the remainder of the dough until finished.
Pasta Carbonara Recipe
Adapted from NYT Cooking
Ingredients
4 ounces pancetta, thick bacon, or guanciale, sliced into ¼-inch cubes or ¼-inch x 1-inch lardons
3 large eggs + 2 large egg yolks (at room temperature)
1 ounce grated Pecorino Romano cheese (about ⅓ packed cup), plus extra for serving
1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese (about ⅓ packed cup)
Sea salt, to taste
Coarsely ground black pepper, to taste
1 recipe of fresh pasta or ¾ pound dry pasta
Directions
Place the guanciale/pancetta/slab bacon in a large, cold skillet. Turn your 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 the heat.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and egg yolks together until thoroughly combined. Add both cheeses, and add salt and pepper to taste, and combine.
Fill a kettle or pot with water, and bring it to a boil. Pour the boiling water into a glass or porcelain serving bowl to warm.
Meanwhile, 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?
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