Filipino Style Creamy Carbonara
“Filipino style creamy carbonara using smoked beef bacon, fresh mushrooms and flavorful cream sauce that can last longer than the carbonara egg sauce style.”
This Filipino style creamy carbonara is rich, creamy, and loaded with crunchy bacon and delicious mushrooms. It’s easy to make for daily family dinners yet fancy enough for holiday gatherings or celebrations.
Carbonara is an original Italian pasta dish traditionally made from egg, hard cheese, cured pork and black pepper. We, Filipinos, like to adapt international cuisines and make our own version to fit our Pinoy tastes. So our Carbonara pasta is cooked differently from the original Italian carbonara. This carbonara recipe is very similar though with addition of cream sauce. The creamy sauce can last longer than the carbonara egg sauce style. This is absolutely a Pinoy style cooking.
This Filipino style creamy carbonara is a quick and easy dish you can pull together in no time. It has a simple list of ingredients and is ready within 30 minutes.
tips on how to make creamy carbonara
Fresh mushroom is always the best. But if it’s not available you can also use canned mushroom.
Bacon adds much of the flavor in this pasta dish, so please don’t skip! I used smoked beef bacon here due to its availability in the supermarket. It is up to you how much bacon you would use. I prefer to use more because you can’t go wrong with it and I love the crispy, smoky bits in every bite.
Pasta tends to absorb a lot of moisture, so go a little heavy on the cream sauce to compensate for the drying out. The sauce will also thicken as it cools down so make sure your sauce is a bit thinner in consistency when cooking. You can add a little water if you find the sauce to be too thick and adjust your seasonings accordingly.
This recipe uses all-purpose cream but you can also substitute heavy cream or cooking cream as well. Once you add the cream, cook in a gentle simmer, stir continuously and do not let it come to a boil to avoid curdling.
Chicken broth adds flavor to the dish. If you don’t have it at hand, you can use half piece of chicken broth cubes and dissolve it in 1 cup of pasta water. You can do this by reserving 1 cup of pasta water before you drain it. If you don’t have chicken cubes you can just use plain pasta water. Maybe right now, you would notice that when I cook pasta I always do this if I need a broth for the recipe. It’s a good substitute because the water from the pasta has already absorbed the starch coming from the pasta.
The recipe uses spaghetti noodles, but fettucine, rigatoni, linguine or bucatini are also great selections.
If you have plans of serving pasta in your upcoming celebrations, you should consider this recipe. Your guest will definitely love it. Let me know how it turns out. Happy tummy!
Watch on YouTube: Filipino Style Creamy Carbonara
Filipino Style Creamy Carbonara Recipe
Equipment
- Cooking pot, wok/skillet and stirring spoon
- Chopping board and knife
Ingredients
- 250 grams pasta spaghetti
- 220 grams smoked beef bacon or pork bacon — reserve some for garnishing when cooked
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 250 grams fresh mushroom, sliced thinly
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken broth or ½ piece chicken broth cubes dissolve in 1 cup reserve pasta water
- 320 grams all-purpose cream
- 3 tablespoons parmesan cheese — reserve some for garnishing
- ½ teaspoon salt, add more according to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, add more according to taste
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped — reserve some for garnishing
Instructions
- In a large pot, pour water and boil then add salt. Put spaghetti pasta into the boiling water and cook according to package instruction or until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water before draining well (if no chicken broth is available). Set aside.
- In a wide skillet/ wok over medium heat, add bacon. Cook and stir occasionally, until bacon fat gets extracted. Continue to cook until the texture becomes brown and crispy. Remove from heat and drain on paper towel. Set aside.
- Sauté the garlic and onion using 1 to 2 tablespoons of the extracted bacon fat in the pan. Cook until translucent.
- Add mushrooms, stir and cook until softened while stirring occasionally. Remove the mushroom mixture from the pan and set aside.
- In the same skillet, add butter and heat until melted. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, about 1 minute or until smooth and lightly brown.
- Slowly pour in chicken broth/pasta broth, whisking continuously to prevent lumps from forming.
- Add cream and lower the heat and bring to a simmer. Do not let it come to a boil to avoid curdling. Cook until slightly thickened, stirring continuously.
- Put in parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper. Add parsley then turn off heat.
- Add the cooked pasta, bacon and mushroom mixture into the sauce. Toss until all ingredients are fully combined.
- Transfer to a serving plate. Garnish with reserved bacon, parmesan cheese and parsley.
- Serve while hot and enjoy!
