Linguine Carbonara is an easy family favorite version of a classic Spaghetti Carbonara recipe! Tender linguine noodles, ham and peas are tossed in a cheese and egg yolk mixture for an incredibly creamy pasta that everyone raves over!
This delicious meal is perfect for a busy weeknight! Add in a tossed green salad and some garlic bread and you’ve got a homemade meal in under 30 minutes!
Easy Carbonara Sauce
If you’ve never had carbonara before, it’s such a deliciously rich and creamy pasta… and SO easy to make! Typically a traditional spaghetti carbonara contains Italian style bacon such as pancetta however, my kids love it with diced ham… plus it’s the perfect way to use leftover ham!
The best part about this delicious creamy dish is that it’s on the table in less than 20 minutes start to finish. The sauce doesn’t require cooking, just mixing and the heat from the pasta will cook it into an incredible creamy base. I use fresh linguine from the refrigerator case at the store which takes about 3-4 minutes to cook. Talk about easy!
Tips for Linguine Carbonara
- Sauce:
- Have your sauce completely prepared before starting this dish. The pasta has to be hot to cook the egg mixture.
- Don’t cook the sauce or you’ll end up with scrambled eggs.
- Meat:
- A traditional carbonara uses pancetta or guanciale (pork jowl). Bacon is a great substitute.
- If you’d like to add extra protein, use leftover cooked chicken breasts.
- Parmesan Cheese:
- Freshly grated is best (I use my magic bullet to grate cheese).
- Avoid pre-shredded parmesan, the starches added to keep it from sticking also keep it from melting smoothly.
- Powdered grated parmesan cheese can be used in this recipe.
Serve this easy carbonara with your favorite Easy Italian Salad and some crusty bread with homemade garlic butter for a great meal!
To Reheat: Heat over low heat until warm, you may need to add a splash of milk or cream to keep a creamy consistency.
More Italian Favorites
- Easy Chicken Marsala Recipe – A quick mushroom sauce, great over pasta or Mashed Potatoes.
- Easy Homemade Lasagna – Classic recipe for good reason!
- Baked Spaghetti – Family (and reader) favorite!
- Baked Ziti – Flavorful meat sauce, ricotta cheese and tender pasta.
- Baked Rigatoni Pasta– Make ahead!
Linguine Carbonara
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh linguine
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ cup onion finely diced
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 cups ham diced
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup parmesan cheese grated
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat olive oil and cook ham, garlic and onions over medium heat until onion is translucent. Add wine and let reduce until almost evaporated.
- Stir together egg yolks, eggs and parmesan cheese. Set aside.
- Cook pasta & peas together in a large pot of salted water just until pasta is al dente. Drain pasta ensuring that you reserve 1 ½ cups of the cooking liquid.
- Immediately toss pasta with the egg mixture and ham (you must do this right away to ensure the hot pasta cooks the egg). Add reserved cooking liquid a little at a time to get desired consistency (I usually use about ¾ cup). Stir in parsley and serve.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner, Pasta
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Very delicious meal to use up some leftover ham! My family liked it very much. My only caveat (but no stars off for that is that the time of a total of 15 minutes was way off!) Nonetheless, I will make again… I don’t mind the time if it tastes great, which this one did!
I followed the recipe exactly and found it to be a little dry. I like the flavor but will add cream, the next time I make it. flavor was delicious.
10/21/22- Made a half batch. Good but not excellent. I used a cup of leftover spiral ham & 2 pieces of bacon. I fresh grated Parmesan cheese and added ¼ cup fresh grated Romano cheese as well. I did not have frozen peas so I substituted frozen corn. I cooked the corn along with the ham & onion. It was a bit too strong tasting. Perhaps the fresh cheeses were too much.
Next time: I will Try using the grated Parmesan cheese and perhaps add a ¼ cup half & half along with the pasta water.
Love your recipes! I will try this again.
This recipe is part of our regular rotation. I’ve made it enough times now that I feel like I should leave a review! In a nutshell, it’s amazing. I love it. My husband loves it. My kids love it. I don’t eat ham, so what we do is buy a whole smoked turkey breast and dice that up instead (tastes and feels a lot like real ham). On occasion, I will heat it a bit extra on the stove to make sure it’s cooked enough (though not enough to scramble the eggs). I love it with lots of freshly ground black pepper on top. It’s soooo good!!!
Thank you for sharing! So happy to hear that your family loves this carbonara!
Very disappointing- bland, dry, very little flavor. I used the full 1.5 cups of liquid and it as still too dry. Maybe using only a half pound of the noodles would help. I plan to find a white sauce recipe in an effort to salvage the enormous amount of leftovers.
Sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy the carbonara as much as we do Kathy. Thank you for trying it.
Holly, I just made the Carbonara linguine. Rave reviews from my family.
So happy to hear that everyone loves the carbonara Karen!