Spaghetti Carbonara

Why This Spaghetti Carbonara Works

During cooking, the pasta water does more than just boil the spaghetti. As the spaghetti cooks, some starch goes into the water. A little of this starchy water is saved and later mixed in, so the sauce can grab onto the noodles and turn smooth instead of watery or clumpy.

In the pan, the pancetta slowly browns and crisps. As it cooks, some fat melts out and coats the bottom of the skillet. That melted fat sticks to the hot spaghetti when it is tossed in, so the noodles are shiny and lightly coated before the eggs ever touch them.

Once the pan is off the heat, the egg and Parmesan mixture goes onto the hot pasta. The heat from the spaghetti is enough to gently thicken the eggs, but not so strong that they scramble. The eggs and cheese cling to the starch on the noodles and, with a splash of pasta water, turn into a silky sauce that wraps around every strand.

Mistakes To Avoid

Pouring the egg and cheese mixture into a very hot pan keeps the eggs from staying creamy. The eggs grab onto the heat, set too fast, and turn into little scrambled bits. The pasta ends up coated in clumps instead of a smooth, glossy sauce.

Letting the pasta sit too long after draining means it cools down and dries on the surface. The cooler noodles don’t melt the cheese properly, so the mixture sticks in patches and the sauce stays grainy instead of silky.

Adding the pasta water too quickly can flood the pan. The sauce then turns thin and soupy instead of gently loosening, and the cheese can separate into stringy pieces instead of staying blended with the eggs.

Cooking the pancetta on very low heat leaves it soft and greasy instead of crisp. The fat doesn’t render properly, so the pasta gets coated in heavy oil without those small crunchy bits that should be mixed through.

Using too much salt in the pasta water causes trouble once the salty pancetta and Parmesan go in. The final dish can’t be fixed at the end and tastes harsh, since there is no way to pull that salt back out.