24/01/2026
Carbonara at home and on a budget. Traditional carbonara has guanciale but considering how stupidly exxy cured pork cheek is and how inaccessible it is to the every day shopper, we’re using bacon. Bacon, cheese, eggs, pasta and pepper. That is literally it. So incredibly rich, creamy and moreish. I used bucatini which is a thick spaghetti with a hole running through it. The sauce seeps into the middle of the spaghetti sooooo nicely but you can use regular spag for as little as $0.90. Ingredients for 2: - 100-150g pasta - 4 yolks (2 yolks per person) - 70g freshly shaved pecorino (use Parmesan for an even cheaper alternative) - 100-150g bacon - 1 tbsp pepper Method: - dice the bacon and cook until golden. Remove from the pan and reserve a couple of tablespoons of bacon fat. Discard the rest - in a seperate bowl combine the yolks, pecorino, pepper and the bacon fat - cook the pasta in heavily salted water until al dente (don’t drain) - in the same pan you cooked the bacon in (I used a different pan because my stainless steel pan is a bitch and needs seasoning) add the al dente pasta with 1/2 cup of pasta water on low heat - when the pasta water begins to boil turn off the heat and add the egg and cheese mixture - stir to combine adding more pasta water if needed to help loosen the sauce. If the sauce is too thin for your liking, add more cheese (like you see in the video) - stir through the bacon and serve
