Carbonara — traditional Italian pasta sauce — has three rules: no cream, no garlic (really!), no exceptions. The Italians are very serious about this. Violate these rules in Rome, and you may not make it out alive.
True, some carbonara recipes use cream as a shortcut, but it’s not traditional carbonara sauce anymore. It’s like calling instant coffee a double espresso because it’s also brown and warm.
The traditional carbonara is built on egg yolks, whole eggs, Pecorino Romano, guanciale, and pasta cooking water. The starchy cooking water helps bind and emulsify the sauce — but here’s the thing: it also dilutes it. Remove the pasta cooking water from the equation, and you don’t actually lose anything. You just end up with a thicker, glossier, more intense sauce. Turns out the water was the weakest link all along.
And since carbonara was always eggs, cheese, and cured pork — it’s basically carnivore with a pasta problem. Fix the pasta problem — i.e., use my Carnivore Fettuccine — and you’re done.
Guanciale is the traditional choice for cured meat. It’s fatty, rich, and gloriously porky. Pancetta works beautifully, too. Bacon is perfectly acceptable, and nobody is going to report you to the Italian food police. Probably. Just ensure that whatever cured pork you use, it’s fatty and you cut it into thick pieces.
One more thing: go easy on the salt — or skip it entirely. The cured meat and Pecorino are already salty enough to season a small lake. Taste before you add anything. You’ll see what I mean.
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