A woman has shared a simple and cheap carbonara recipe for a hearty family dinner that uses just five ingredients and is on the table in around 20 minutes.
Recipe details
Charlie Louise shared a quick, affordable and straightforward carbonara recipe on TikTok as @charlie_louise_cc. She said carbonara was a dish she regularly prepared when she was particularly focused on minimising costs. She used to keep her weekly food shop down to just £11.
Ingredients and cost
Charlie purchased a 28p packet of spaghetti from Tesco and used the whole amount. The onion cost 32p, and she selected a "big one" to incorporate substantial flavour. She then picked up three eggs, which cost approximately 50p. She acknowledged you could probably manage with two, but she prefers to include as much protein as possible. She highlighted you'll need bacon bits, for which you can use lardons. She explained they're rather pricey, so she opted to chop up a pack of bacon, which cost her £1.49. She also grated half a block of Parmesan cheese, which set her back roughly £1.25. The total cost for ingredients to serve four is £3.84, making it 96p per serving.
Method
Charlie boiled the pasta for approximately 11 minutes while frying an onion and the bacon in a separate pan. She then added the Parmesan cheese to the three cracked eggs in a bowl, combining everything together until it was "nice and smooth". She subsequently removed the pasta from the heat and combined all the ingredients together in the pan. "You want to make sure you take the pan off the heat when you add the eggs in, because you don't want the eggs to scramble too much," Charlie said. The total cook time is around 15 to 20 minutes.
Reactions
In the comments, someone wrote: "There is no onion in carbonara, and only use 2 egg yolks per person. Use smoked bacon or pancetta, but really should be guanciale." Another commenter shared: "I like this recipe. It doesn't matter what you call it; it's a good value for money for the family of 4."
