I Tried Damn Delicious’ 15-Minute Spaghetti Carbonara and Did Not Expect These Results

I would love to sit here and act like I’ve never taken a shortcut in my professional cooking life, but that would simply not be true. In fact, I love a good shortcut and I will seek one out whenever possible. Work smarter, not harder, right? When perusing the internet for contenders to go head to head in our recipe showdown for carbonara, I came across Damn Delicious’ take on carbonara. It boasted a super-straightforward ingredient list and a 15- minute cook time that was hard to pass up. I’m all for simplifying, so I was super curious to give this recipe a spin.

Get the recipe: Damn Delicious’ Spaghetti Carbonara

First up, cook your pasta in a pot of heavily salted water to al dente. Reserve some pasta water and then drain. Separately, whisk together eggs and Parmesan in a small bowl. Then, cook diced bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crispy. Next, add in minced garlic and reduce the heat to low. Working quickly, add in the pasta and egg mixture and toss to combine. Drizzle in pasta water to create a sauce. Season with salt and pepper as needed, then portion into bowls, garnish with fresh parsley, and serve immediately.

Unfortunately, I did not find success with this one. Sometimes you gotta scramble a few eggs before you master carbonara, and I did just that with this recipe. Now, listen, I am not in the business of blame games and pointing fingers, and there was definitely some user error on my part. However, I think it’s worth clarifying a few points in the recipe so that you don’t make the same mistakes that I did (see my tips below).

Despite my scrambling blunder, I will say this: Substituting bacon and Parmesan for guanciale/pancetta and pecorino Romano is completely fine. The former ingredients are less expensive and much more widely available than the latter and, frankly, I found the flavor differences to be marginal. Bacon doesn’t have as salty and porky of a flavor as its Italian counterparts, guanciale and pancetta, but it’s a completely sufficient substitute.

This recipe also calls for garlic and parsley, which are both ingredients that classic Italians might not call for, and I was indifferent about the addition of both. They didn’t add a new, mind-blowing dimension, but they certainly didn’t take away from the beauty of a good carbonara. If you have ‘em and you want to add ‘em, go for it. But if you’re a purist (or have an Italian grandmother who you are afraid of), then feel free to skip.

1. Start by cooking the bacon. I think the sequence of events in the method could be improved. Rather than starting by cooking the pasta, then making the egg and cheese mixture, and finally cooking the bacon, I would suggest starting with cooking the bacon (so that the pan has a little time to cool down), then cooking the pasta, and while the pasta is cooking, mix the eggs and cheese. Add the pasta to the cooked bacon only after the pan has cooled slightly and is off the heat. Toss the pasta with the bacon and bacon fat before adding the egg mixture. This way, the pan will have had time to slightly cool and won’t scramble the eggs on contact.
2. Don’t drain the bacon fat. The recipe calls to “reserve excess fat” after the bacon is cooked, but it’s never added back. I would recommend keeping the rendered fat in the pan, as it gives the garlic something to cook in, and it helps make for a thicker, tastier pasta sauce.
3. Add the garlic off the heat. There is no greater heartbreak than burning your garlic. When you’re dealing with minced garlic, it can go from perfectly cooked to irreparably burnt and bitter in a matter of seconds. To avoid that I would recommend taking your pan off the heat and letting it cool slightly before adding in the minced garlic.

Rating: 5/10