This Carbonara Recipe Filipino Style is a winner. It is a good dish that you can prepare for Noche Buena for many reasons. It is rich, creamy, and delicious. It is quick and easy to cook too. It took me around 30 minutes to complete the dish. You should try making this for the Holidays.
Filipino Carbonara vs. Traditional Spaghetti Carbonara
The Filipino version of Carbonara, as featured in this recipe post, is different from traditional carbonara in terms of preparation and ingredients used.
Filipino Carbonara is more of a pasta Alfredo with bacon. It is richer and creamier than the traditional version. This is attributed to the use of heavy cream. Italian carbonara, on the other hand, makes use of beaten eggs with Pecorino Romano cheese and lots of ground black pepper for the sauce.
The process in making the sauce for both versions varies. Filipino style carbonara sauce needs a little bit of cooking. The sauce for traditional carbonara is poured raw over warm pasta towards the end of the cooking process. The spaghetti is tossed while the sauce gets cooked slowly using residual heat from the pasta.
How to Cook Filipino Style Carbonara
Start by preparing the bacon. It should be cooked crispy. Do this by laying bacon strips on a pan. Cook in medium heat on a stove top for 2 minutes per side and continue the process until the bacon gets crispy. The oil extracted from the bacon is needed to cook the sauce. Save around 3 tablespoons of bacon grease.
Cook the spaghetti until al dente. I suggest following the package instructions for best results. I did this by boiling 2 quarts water in a pot, added coarse sea salt, and cooked the spaghetti for 12 minutes. The salt will provide flavor to the pasta as it will get absorbed as it cooks.
The next step is to make Filipino Carbonara sauce. Heat the bacon grease and start sauteing onion and garlic. Make sure the onion softens and garlic turns light brown before pouring the cream. Pour ¼ cup of water used to cook the spaghetti into the pot with cream and let the mixture cook for 3 minutes.
I add a piece of Knorr Beef Cube afterwards to make the sauce tasty. I also like adding a pinch of nutmeg into the mix to make the sauce smell and taste good. The last piece for the sauce is bacon. Add half of the chopped crisp bacon into the sauce. You can also put some ground black pepper, if preferred.
Now, add the spaghetti to the sauce in the pan. Toss until it gets coated evenly. Add grated Parmesan cheese and remaining bacon. Toss some more. Now your Filipino Style Carbonara is ready.
Alternative Ingredients
You can substitute spaghetti with fettuccine, or linguine.
The alternatives for all-purpose cream are table cream or media crema, heavy cream, or heavy whipping cream.
Paremsan is good, but grated cheddar cheese can be used as alternative. Pecorino Romano is ideal.
There is also a version that makes use of mushroom. Here is our Creamy Bacon and Mushroom Carbonara.
Try this Carbonara Recipe Filipino Style. Let me know what you think.
Carbonara Recipe Filipino Style
Ingredients
- 3/4 lb. spaghetti
- 1 piece Knorr beef cube
- 7 strips bacon
- 15 ounces all-purpose cream
- 6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 piece yellow onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 quarts water
Instructions
- Cook the bacon until crispy. Do this by placing each strip in a pan. Cook in medium heat for 2 minutes. Flip the bacon and cook the opposite side for another 2 minutes. Continue performing the same steps until each piece gets crispy. Set aside. Save the bacon grease.
- Cook the spaghetti by pouring water in a cooking pot. Let boil. Add salt and put the spaghetti into the pot. Cook for 12 minutes or until al dente. Remove the spaghetti Set aside. Save ¼ cup of water used to cook spaghetti.
- Prepare the carbonara sauce by heating 3 tablespoons of bacon grease. Saute onion and garlic.
- One the onion softens, pour all-purpose cream into the pan. Stir. Add ¼ cup water.
- Add Knorr Beef Cube. Stir until well blended.
- Put chopped bacon and nutmeg into the sauce. Stir.
- Add the cooked spaghetti. Toss until spaghetti gets totally coated with sauce.
- Add Parmesan cheese. Toss. Add more bacon.
- Transfer to a serving plate. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Watch How to Cook Filipino Carbonara
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