Delicious Ground Beef Carbonara

Beef carbonara pasta is a great way if you want to try a classic pasta recipe but you can’t eat pork meat. We will add some butter to make the Carbonara pasta creamier and to bring the taste and texture of the original Carbonara pasta.

This recipe combines tender ground beef with a creamy carbonara sauce making it a satisfying meal. The dish is very easy to prepare and you can have it on your table in under 15 minutes.

This recipe will be quicker to make than waiting for a food delivery from your nearest restaurant.

Basically, we will prepare the beef Carbonara sauce meanwhile you will wait for the pasta to be cooked.

If you’re a pasta lover, you should give a try to this recipe! It is a hearty and flavorful dish that is perfect for any weeknight dinner or for a special occasion.

Some of my guests prefer this recipe over the original Carbonara pasta.

🥰 Why You Will Love This Recipe?

• It is a perfect recipe for people who cannot eat pork but would still like to try the carbonara pasta recipe.
• At the same time, by using this recipe, you will avoid eating commercial charcuterie that has various additives that are not healthy.
• It cooks quickly and is an easy recipe to follow, even if you don’t have too much experience.
• It will cook faster than you should wait for the food to be delivered from the restaurant.

🥘 Ingredients and Substitutes

• Pasta. You can use any type of pasta that you have on hand or that you prefer. If you want the pasta to absorb more sauce, use pasta that has a hole on the inside and that has a rough surface. An example would be “penne rigate”. Also, this sauce goes perfectly with egg-based pasta, such as “tagliatelle”
• Beef. You can use minced beef. But, for a greater similarity to the original recipe, I decided to cut the meat into small pieces.
• Cheese. The classic recipe for carbonara is with “pecorino” cheese. But as this cheese has a more intense aroma, I decided to use parmesan cheese instead because it is a friendly cheese that most people prefer.
• Butter. In the classic recipe, no other fat is added. Only that one that was leaked from the “guanciale”, but because we are using lean meat, we need to add more fat to give taste and density to the sauce.
• Eggs. Eggs are a classic ingredient in this recipe, and they cannot be replaced. For a better result, I recommend you use the highest quality eggs because the final taste of the recipe will largely depend on the taste of the eggs.
• Seasonings. The main seasoning for carbonara pasta is freshly ground black pepper, which is used in abundance. The only thing you can do is adjust the salt in the end if it will be needed.

👩‍🍳 Step-by-step Directions

As this recipe will last exactly as long as the pasta will cook, the first step will be boiling the water for the pasta. After you put the water to boil, take another frying pan and melt the butter in it.

After the butter has melted, put the minced meat on it and fry the beef on medium heat until it is cooked. In my case, this step took about 7 minutes.

Quick Note: The smaller you will cut the meat – the faster it will cook.

Put the eggs in a bowl, then add the parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.

Mix well to get a uniform sauce.

When the meat is ready, turn off the heat and wait for the pasta to boil.

Once the pasta has been cooked, remove it from the water and place it over the meat that we just fried in the previous step.

Quick Note: You can turn off the heat on the frying pan with the meat. We don’t need it anymore.

After you moved the pasta from the water to the frying pan with the fried beef, add ⅓ cup of the water in which we boiled the pasta over the egg sauce that we made earlier. Mix quickly so that it does not separate.

After this, pour the entire composition over the pasta.

Mix well for several minutes continuously. Due to the temperature of the pan and the pasta, the egg will cook and create a creamy sauce that will coat the pasta.

Serve as soon as possible. For an extra Mediterranean flavor, you can sprinkle a little bit of olive oil.

Also, you can also sprinkle freshly chopped parsley on top of the pasta for extra color and flavor. If you don’t have parsley at hand, you can replace it with fresh basil.

🏆 Expert Tips. What to Pay Attention To?

• Serve the beef carbonara pasta as soon as you cook it. If it cools down, the sauce will harden and stick to the pasta.
• For extra creaminess, I will recommend using a whole egg for each serving.
• For every 1 cup of water, add ¼ teaspoon of salt. Otherwise, you won’t be able to give the pasta a good taste. It will be bland.

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