Dinner Pasta and Noodle Dishes Pasta Pasta Carbonara 16 Can't-Miss Carbonara Recipes Choose your pasta shape, preferred pork, and cheese to customize pasta carbonara to your liking or to use what you have on hand. By Food & Wine Editors Food & Wine Editors This is collaborative content from Food & Wine's team of experts, including staff, recipe developers, chefs, and contributors. Many of our galleries curate recipes or guides from a variety of sources which we credit throughout the content and at each link. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on January 25, 2024 Trending Videos Photo: Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Dickey / Prop Styling by Shell Royster Italian pasta carbonara traditionally includes eggs, cured pork, and cheese, and it's easy to modify with different types of each and additional ingredients. Start with our stellar spaghetti carbonara and riff from there with caviar, clams, garden herbs, spinach, and more for a classic pasta that's silky, hearty, rich, and potentially earthy, sweet, or smoky. These are our favorite carbonara recipes. 01 of 16 Creamy Spaghetti Carbonara with Peas and Ham Photo by Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Rishon Hanners / Prop Styling by Sarah Elizabeth Cleveland Jasmine Smith's modern take on the dish relies on ham instead of traditional pancetta for a dose of smoky flavor and richness. Get the Recipe 02 of 16 Summer Crab Carbonara with Lemons and Capers Michael Piazza 2020 F&W Best New Chef Douglass Williams’ method for carbonara makes for a simple, creamy carbonara without the stress. Get the Recipe 03 of 16 Spaghetti Carbonara Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Dickey / Prop Styling by Shell Royster The Food & Wine Test Kitchen came up with the ultimate carbonara combining a silky egg-based sauce, crispy guanciale, and Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses. Chefs advise on technique, and it's ready in 30 minutes. Get the Recipe 04 of 16 Clams Carbonara John Kernick Boston chef Matt Jennings’s pasta combines two beautiful things: salty, rich carbonara and spaghetti alle vongole, prepared with briny New England clams. Get the Recipe 05 of 16 Garden Herb Spaghetti Carbonara © Ian Knauer Raid your window box or kitchen garden for this super-fast carbonara. Get the Recipe 06 of 16 Smoked Gouda Carbonara © Con Poulos In a clever play on carbonara, Justin Chapple uses smoked Gouda cheese, adding a deliciously smoky flavor to this silky, hearty, and totally delicious pasta. Get the Recipe 07 of 16 Spinach Pasta Carbonara © Roland Persson "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. Get the Recipe 08 of 16 Sun Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Carbonara Ian Knauer Sun dried tomatoes add a subtle sweetness and acidity to this easy weeknight pasta dish. Get the Recipe 09 of 16 Linguine Carbonara © Iain Bagwell. Food styling by Simon Andrews. No book about quick pastas would be complete without a version of this classic. It's made with little more than bacon and eggs. Get the Recipe 10 of 16 Caviar Carbonara John Kernick 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. Get the Recipe 11 of 16 Calabrian Carbonara © Christina Holmes New York City chef Andrew Carmellini uses Calabrian 'nduja, the spicy, spreadable sausage, to bring loads of delicious heat and flavor to his silky carbonara. Get the Recipe 12 of 16 Spaghetti with Anchovy Carbonara © TINA RUPP Chris Cosentino adds briny flavor to his pasta with cured tuna heart. He shaves it on right before serving. Get the Recipe 13 of 16 Spaghetti Carbonara with Green Peas © Edmund Barr 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. Get the Recipe 14 of 16 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. Get the Recipe 15 of 16 Bucatini Carbonara © Anna Williams 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. Get the Recipe 16 of 16 Creamy Spaghetti Carbonara © TINA RUPP This classic Italian dish benefits from 6 ounces of delicious pancetta. Get the Recipe Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit