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Four Ingredient Spaghetti Carbonara for Two

By: Nicole 33 Comments
Posted: 02/06/15 Updated: 03/21/17

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.

Four Ingredient Spaghetti Carbonara for Two

While it’s alluring to serve your sweetheart a perfectly seared steak au poivre with brandy cream sauce, butter-poached lobster tail and chocolate soufflé for dessert this Valentine’s Day, you really don’t have to break the bank or spend hours preparing the perfect meal to impress someone. Sometimes the most common, inexpensive ingredients yield results worthy for a special occasion.

This four ingredient spaghetti carbonara for two, is not only delicious, but requires only four (yes four) ingredients and comes together in under 30 minutes from start to finish. Silky spaghetti noodles are coated in a creamy parmesan and egg-yolk based sauce and speckled with flecks of bacon – the sum of its parts harmonizing together perfectly to create an end result fit to impress.

Four Ingredient Spaghetti Carbonara for Two

As it goes with many of my favorite foods, I can still vividly remember the first time I tasted and fell in love with spaghetti carbonara. It was – fittingly – in Italy, years ago, and one of the very first nights I had arrived in Rome. As I’m sure you can imagine it was quite the conundrum figuring out what to order on a menu that was basically tailored to me, listing every single one of my favorite Italian foods.

After painstakingly studying the menu and playing a food tug-of-war in my head, I finally settled on a squash ravioli with butter and sage – one of my all-time favorite pastas. I was fairly confident in my decision post-ordering, and even as our dishes approached the table, I was still certain I made the right choice.

It. Was. delicious. And everything I’d imagined in my head and more – perfectly tender pasta stuffed with sweet butternut squash puree and delicately covered in fried sage and melted butter. Heaven on a plate if you will – or at least that’s what I initially concluded.

Four Ingredient Spaghetti Carbonara for Two

After I finished every last morsel on my plate, my friend graciously offered me a bite of his spaghetti carbonara I’d so callously overlooked, and of course I accepted…

Four Ingredient Spaghetti Carbonara for Two

It blew the ravioli out of the water. It was dumfounding to me how much flavor could be packed into what looked like such a simple, one note dish – I immediately wished I had also ordered it. After that moment, it quickly became one of my favorite items to order during my time over there, and immediately upon my return I figured out how to make it myself.

Since then it’s been something that I whip on a random Tuesday night when there’s barely anything in our fridge, but also something I make for a fancy Friday night dinner.

Four Ingredient Spaghetti Carbonara for Two

There are a variety of different ways to make carbonara, but today’s recipe is probably one of the most simple you’ll come across. It begins with the rendering of bacon, to be used in two different ways; first, to be sprinkled throughout the pasta strands, and second, to make the base of the sauce. In most traditional carbonaras pancetta is used as opposed to bacon, but I actually like the taste of bacon better in this particular instance.

Once the bacon is crispy and the fat has been rendered, the skillet is removed from the oven, the bacon is chopped up and aldente spaghetti is tossed in with the fat.

Four Ingredient Spaghetti Carbonara for Two

And then…the magic happens. Egg yolks and grated parmesan cheese are loosened up with a bit of pasta water, and then the hot noodles are removed from the stove and tossed with the egg and cheese mixture. The residual heat from the noodles starts to thicken and cook the egg yolks and cheese, creating this ultra luxurious cream sauce that is HEAVEN.

The bacon is sprinkled in, everything is seasoned with salt and freshly cracked black pepper and the meal is complete.

To make this a meal worthy of Valentine’s Day, I just serve it with a loaf of good-quality charred Italian ciabatta, a crisp Caesar salad and a bottle of red wine – romantic dinner, done!

Four Ingredient Spaghetti Carbonara for Two

4.3 from 3 reviews
Four Ingredient Spaghetti Carbonara
 
Print
Prep time
5 mins
Cook time
15 mins
Total time
20 mins
 
Author: Nicole
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 3 slices bacon
  • 3 egg yolks
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • ⅓ cup pecorino cheese (plus more at the end)
  • 8 ounces spaghetti
Instructions
  1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Season well with salt. It should taste like sea water.
  2. Add bacon to a medium non-stick skillet. Cook until crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove bacon from grease and chop. If your bacon rendered more than 3 tablespoons of fat, spoon out the excess. Make sure to keep all the brown bits from the bacon.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk yolks, salt and black pepper. Set aside.
  4. Cook the pasta until aldente. Reserve cooking liquid.
  5. Slowly whisk in about ¼ - ⅓ cup of starchy pasta water into the egg mixture to slowly rise the temperature of the eggs.
  6. Using tongs, transfer the cooked pasta to the skillet with the bacon fat. Turn the heat on medium-high, and toss noodles with fat until very hot. Remove from heat.
  7. Pour egg mixture into the hot noodles, along with the cheese, and toss with tongs. Keep tossing until the sauce thickens, if necessary, add more pasta water until you get desired consistency. Toss until pasta is coated in sauce and cheese is melted. Add bacon.
  8. Season with cheese, salt and pepper.
3.3.3077

Meet Nicole

Welcome! My lifelong passion for delicious food and cooking has evolved over time into an equal love of showing you an elevated meal can be easy, approachable and most importantly, tasty. Dive in and find something perfect for you and your family!

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  1. Carla says

    Posted on 2/12/15 at 8:00 pm

    Hi! Looks delicious!
    Just a quick question- which cheese should i use? Pecorino or Parmesan? Can i use both?
    New to making Carbonara 🙂

    Thanks so much!

    Reply
    • Nicole says

      Posted on 2/12/15 at 8:05 pm

      Hi Carla! I used pecorino, because it’s not as sharp as parmesan, but either will work just fine!!! You can definitely use both! The are lovely togehter. )

      Reply
  2. Alaina-Fabtastic Eats says

    Posted on 2/18/15 at 5:16 pm

    This is crazy, but the first time I ever tried carbonara is when I made your butternut squash version, and we absolutely fell in love with it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made it. I’m definitely trying this classic version soon. It looks amazing.

    Reply
  3. Bach G says

    Posted on 2/24/15 at 2:45 am

    Yum! This looks fantastic and easy enough for dinner tonight. Thanks for sharing the recipe 🙂

    Reply
    • Nicole says

      Posted on 2/24/15 at 3:15 am

      You’re welcome! Thank you!

      Reply
  4. Ole says

    Posted on 1/4/17 at 6:13 am

    4 Ingredient meal, with 6 Ingredients! 😉

    Reply
    • Nicole says

      Posted on 1/4/17 at 4:17 pm

      Hi Ole! Salt and pepper actually don’t count as ingredients as most people have them on hand. This is standard for all recipes! 🙂

      Reply
  5. nigel cook says

    Posted on 3/21/17 at 12:50 am

    Im confused. The recipe calls for an oven at 400 degrees. But it doesnt seem to be used. Can you explain?

    Reply
    • Nicole says

      Posted on 3/21/17 at 2:08 am

      I have no idea why we listed the oven temperature at first. Recipe is updated!

      Reply
  6. Robb says

    Posted on 2/12/19 at 4:29 am

    Can u use something else besides the cheese or any other cheese and where do I get it? Lol

    Reply
    • Nicole says

      Posted on 2/16/19 at 9:03 pm

      I would not use anything else! A different kind of cheese such as pecorino Romano would work!

      Reply
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