A Cozy Kitchen’s Lemon Pepper Carbonara Is a Zesty Twist on the Classic Dish

If there is one thing that I have gathered about classic Italian cooking, it’s that Italians don’t like it when you start adding non-traditional ingredients to centuries-old recipes. So, when I noticed that A Cozy Kitchen has a recipe for a lemon pepper carbonara, I was immediately intrigued. A classic carbonara doesn’t call for lemon, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the final dish would actually be improved by this subtle pop of bright, fresh citrus. So I did what any rebel would do, and bought eggs, bacon, spaghetti, and lemon and headed to the kitchen.

Get the recipe: A Cozy Kitchen’s Lemon Pepper Carbonara

While the addition of lemon goes against any classic carbonara, the rest of the recipe stays mostly true to tradition. First, add bacon to a large skillet and cook until the fat is rendered and the meat is crispy. Remove from the skillet and drain the bacon on paper towels. Separately in a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks, Parmesan cheese, pecorino Romano, the zest of half a lemon, and black pepper.

Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of salted, boiling water. Once al dente, reserve some pasta water and drain. Add the pasta to the egg mixture with a splash of water and toss it immediately until the pasta is coated and a sauce begins to form. Add in the cooked bacon and season to taste with any additional salt, pepper, or cheese. Top with more lemon zest and serve immediately.

This was a solid carbonara. Obviously, I was most excited to see how the lemon zest played with the rest of the dish, and I will admit that adding the zest of half a lemon to 1/2 a pound of pasta was not enough to make a huge flavor impact. However, when I took a bite from a bowl of the spaghetti that was garnished with more lemon zest, the flavor was much more pronounced and I quite enjoyed the bright, zesty flavors against the rich, creamy sauce.

When it came time to whisk the egg yolks with the cheeses, I found it pretty hard to whisk everything together because it was a lot of grated cheese and not a ton of liquid (only 4 egg yolks), so it formed more of a paste than a sauce. Because the mixture was so tight, it was somewhat hard to toss the pasta in it because it was clumpy rather than saucy.

Another noteworthy aspect of the recipe is that she instructs you to toss everything together. Rather than bringing the whole dish together in the skillet that was used to cook the bacon, this pasta dish comes together in the large bowl used to mix the eggs and cheese. I liked this technique because it gave a ton of added insurance that you’re not going to accidentally scramble the eggs. It only took a minute to toss everything together in the bowl, so the dish was still hot when it came time to portion it out into bowls.

1. Use 2 whole eggs. The egg and cheese mixture needed more liquid, so instead of using 4 egg yolks, I would probably adjust this to 2 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs if I made this again.
2. Use more lemon zest. I really liked the lemony flavor in this recipe and think it could have used even more. I’d suggest using the zest of 2 whole lemons per 1/2 pound of pasta. You could even add a little squeeze of fresh lemon juice for a super-pronounced, citrusy flavor.

Rating: 8/10