Authentic Gluten Free Spaghetti Carbonara with Guanciale Recipe

This easy recipe for authentic Spaghetti Carbonara is made with melt-in-your-mouth guanciale bacon!

Feeds 2 adults; 1 toddler

Authentic Spaghetti Carbonara with Guanciale Recipe 

Spaghetti carbonara. It's a dish that most people have tried and many home cooks whip up in their kitchens, covering spaghetti or fettuccine noodles with lashings of cream and bacon pieces. As with many popular dishes, spaghetti carbonara has been Anglicized and what typically gets hocked as being traditional is anything but. If you're looking for the creamy, commercialized white congealed mass many food brands and restaurants pass off as carbonara, then you'll be disappointed.

During my one foray to Italy, there were three things I needed to eat in order to consider my trip a success: pizza, pasta and gelato. On my first night in Italy, I ordered a plate of spaghetti carbonara and practically devoured it along the banks of one of Milan's rivers just before midnight. The most memorable thing about this pasta dish as the guanciale: seductive, fatty unsmoked bacon made from pig's cheeks.

The best thing about guanciale is the flavor it carries. It tastes slightly smoked, when all the fat renders it melts in your mouth and it adds much more panache to carbonara than pancetta could ever hope to. This recipe only uses six ingredients and there's not an ounce of cream in sight. Just how the Italians eat it.

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Ingredients:

For the spaghtti carbonara
2 handfuls of dry gluten free spaghetti
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp grated Parmigiano Reggiano
3 slices guanciale
3 tsp black pepper

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Instructions:

Authentic Spaghetti Carbonara with Guanciale

1. Bring a large pot of water on to boil. Add the spaghetti and cook.
2. Combine the egg yolks, pepper and cheese in a bowl large enough to hold the cooked pasta. Whisk together and set aside. (Don't worry if the mixture clumps on the whisk, we'll deal with it later.)
3. Fry the guanciale with the garlic until fragrant and the fat has rendered. Take care not to burn the garlic as it will make the entire dish extremely bitter.
4. Using a spaghetti server or tongs, remove the cooked pasta from the water (keep the water!) and add it to the pan with the guanciale.
5. Swirl the pasta around in the pan to pick up the flavor of the bacon.
6. Add the pasta and guanciale to the bowl with the egg mixture and allow the heat from the pasta and bacon to melt the cheese and loosen the mixture from the whisk.
7. Add a bit of the pasta cooking water and stir to combine. Sprinkle with a bit more cheese and a bit more black pepper to taste.
8. Serve and enjoy.

Check out these other Italian dishes:

Cheesy Spinach & Tortellini Broth

Homemade Vanilla & Almond Biscotti

Turkey Saltimbocca