Carbonara Recipes

Clams Carbonara

Boston chef Matt Jennings’s pasta combines two beautiful things: salty, rich carbonara and spaghetti alle vongole, prepared with briny New England clams.

Garden Herb Spaghetti Carbonara

Raid your window box or kitchen garden for this super-fast carbonara.

• Garden Salad Tacos

Smoked Gouda Carbonara

In a clever play on carbonara, Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple uses smoked Gouda cheese, adding a deliciously smoky flavor to this silky, hearty and totally delicious pasta.

Bacon-Spinach Carbonara

Adding the spinach to the pasta as it cooks means one less pot to wash.

• Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette

Bucatini Carbonara

Italian carbonara is famously rich, combining pancetta or guanciale (cured pork jowl), egg yolks and cheese. At Holeman and Finch, Linton Hopkins adds his own Southern accent to the dish with house-cured pork and local eggs.

• Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Creamy Spaghetti Carbonara

This classic Italian dish benefits from 6 ounces of delicious pancetta.

• Creamy Vegan Pumpkin Soup

Bacon and Fresh Pea Spaghetti Carbonara

Feel free to substitute frozen baby peas if you have trouble finding fresh ones.

• Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Pine Nut-Kasha Granola & Ricotta

Sun Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Carbonara

Sun dried tomatoes add a subtle sweetness and acidity to this easy weeknight pasta dish.

• Fusilli with Spinach and Sun-Dried-Tomato Pesto

Classic Spaghetti Carbonara

Chances are, you already have everything you need in your kitchen to make this simple carbonara.

• Spaghetti with Mushroom Bolognese

Fusilli Carbonara with Herbs

The abundance of fresh tarragon, chervil, chives and parsley--a mixture called fines herbes--is balanced here by the addition of cream and egg yolks. Note that the yolks are cooked only by the heat of the pasta, which thickens them enough to make a sauce.

• Fusilli with Summer Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti Carbonara with Green Peas

A carbonara sauce always has eggs, bacon (usually pancetta) and Parmesan or pecorino cheese; some versions contain heavy cream, others do not. Top Chef contestants Elia Aboumrad and Sam Talbot made their decadent sauce with plenty of cream; to add color and freshness they also added a less conventional ingredient--a handful of green peas.

• Three-Pea Salad

Frascatelli Carbonara

At Union Square Cafe, executive chef Michael Romano tops homemade frascatelli, a dense spaetzle-like pasta, with a combination of pancetta, cheese and cream.

• Zucchini Linguine with Herbs

Linguine Carbonara

No book about quick pastas would be complete without a version of this classic. It's made with little more than bacon and eggs.

• Linguine with Red Cabbage

Spinach Pasta Carbonara

"This epitomizes the beauty of few-ingredient cooking," says Claire Robinson. Indeed, she freshens up the classic, rich pasta by simply adding a few handfuls of spinach to the fettuccine just before it's finished cooking.

• Spinach and Ricotta Pappardelle

Carbonara Arancini

Mario Batali's crisp rice balls have a creamy pancetta, parsley and pecorino filling.

• Arancini with Peas and Mozzarella

Quinoa Carbonara

Carbonara gets a makeover with quinoa in the place of pasta, making for a delicious and gluten-free alternative to the traditional Italian comfort dish.

• Quinoa Balls with Cauliflower and Cheese

Spaghetti with Anchovy Carbonara

Chris Cosentino adds briny flavor to his pasta with cured tuna heart. He shaves it on right before serving.

• White Anchovy Toasts with Parsnip Butter

Spaghetti Carbonara

This easy carbonara is good with or without the fried egg.

• Spaghetti Frittata

Caviar Carbonara

For special occasions, Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple makes beautiful, fresh pappardelle pasta, then tosses it with a quick and decadent carbonara sauce laced with briny pops of caviar and lemon zest. When he doesn’t feel like making the pasta from scratch, he buys the noodles fresh at his local Italian market.