Easy Creamy Carbonara

5 from 3 votes

Adding cream to carbonara may not be ‘authentic’, but it sure is delicious! This Easy Creamy Carbonara features bacon, garlic, cream, parmesan and pasta… but no egg. (Perfect if you love the flavours of Carbonara, but you’re not a fan of the eggy sauce!)

Course Main Course, Pasta

Cuisine American, British, Fusion, Italian

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 10

Total Time 15

Servings people

Calories 665kcal

Author Eb Gargano

Ingredients

300 g linguine or spaghetti (Or any pasta shape you like! This also works well with tagliatelle and fettucine.)
300 g bacon lardons or diced bacon (See Note 1)
4 cloves garlic grated or crushed
300 ml double cream
35 g grated parmesan
Salt and black pepper to taste (See Note 2)
2 tablespoons parsley finely chopped (plus extra for garnish)
More grated parmesan to serve (optional)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Cook the pasta according to packet instructions / your own preferences. When cooked, drain, reserving some of the pasta cooking water. (See Note 3.)
Meanwhile, heat a non-stick frying pan over a high heat for 1 minute.
Place the bacon lardons in the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring regularly until golden brown on all sides.
Remove the lardons and most of the released fat to a plate. Leave a small amount of bacon fat in the pan.
Turn the heat right down and place the frying pan back on the heat. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds, stirring frequently, taking care not to let the garlic go brown or burn.
Add the double cream, parmesan, salt (if using – see Note 2) and pepper, and turn the heat up to medium. Bubble for 2 minutes until a little reduced and thickened.
Add the bacon lardons back to the pan together with as much or as little of the bacon fat as you want to add (see Note 4). Then add the parsley and stir well.
Add the drained pasta, together with a very small splash of pasta cooking water. Stir together well. (If the pasta is looking too dry at this point, you can add an extra splash of pasta cooking water – but don’t go too mad. The sauce is supposed to be quite thick and cling to the pasta.)
Turn off the heat and serve, scattered with grated parmesan, more black pepper and more chopped fresh parsley.

Notes

For best results, I recommend using bacon lardons. However, if you can’t get hold of lardons, you can chop up streaky bacon into small pieces instead.
I personally only use black pepper in this recipe as I find the bacon is salty enough to provide enough salt in this recipe.
I recommend cooking the pasta until it’s nearly but not quite your desired texture as it will cook a little bit more in the sauce.
It’s up to you how much of the bacon fat you add back in. More fat = more flavour, but also more calories! Personally, I add about 1 teaspoon of the fat back in.
Not suitable for freezing.
Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

Nutrition