5 ingredients or less: Creamy Carbonara

Only needing ingredients that you’ll already have in your cupboard, this recipe is perfect for a quick, midweek meal!

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks (the yolk must be separated from the whites)
• 60g parmesan cheese, grated
• Pasta shapes or spaghetti (your choice!)
• A small packet of pancetta or a few pieces of bacon chopped up (your choice!)
• Black pepper

Method:

1. Cook your pasta for 6-7 minutes over a medium heat. The pasta should be almost cooked but with a slight bite to it.
2. In a separate pan (we recommend using a wok or deep pan for this), add your pancetta or bacon and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes until brown and crispy. There’s no need to add oil to the pan when using pancetta but we’d recommend a couple of sprays of cooking spray if using bacon.
3. While the pancetta/bacon is cooking, add the egg yolk and grated cheese to a bowl and mix until it makes a paste. Add black pepper to season.
4. Drain your pasta but save a mug full of the pasta water (it’s important that you save your pasta water as this will help make your carbonara creamy).
5. Add your pasta to the pancetta/bacon and mix well.
6. Add the mug of water to the pasta and pancetta/bacon and keep stirring over a medium heat. After a few minutes, the water should have a white/shiny look to it – this means it is starchy. When it looks like this, take it off the heat.
7. Add the egg yolk paste to the pasta and keep stirring to avoid the eggs curdling (this is when it looks a bit like scrambled eggs). Do this off the heat.
8. After 1 minute, add the pan back onto a low heat and keep stirring until creamy and cheesy. If it becomes dry, add more water.
9. Enjoy!