Name: Carbonara Recipe Filipino Style
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 30 min
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

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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.

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