I made these carbonara hot dogs on a live stream last week, but they didn’t exactly work out that day. I thought I would be able to pan fry them and create the sauce in the pan, but in the end, they fell apart a bit too much. A few days later I tried again and deep fried the dogs to keep the pasta secure on them. For the sauce, I modified a hollandaise to make it taste more like carbonara by using half butter and half pancetta fat, and adding parmesan cheese. I kept the mustard in the sauce cause it is a hot dog after all, but left out the lemon juice.

Prepping the pasta

After you boil the pasta, lay about 15-20 strands on a piece of parchment paper. It might seem crazy to do this but it’s actually no that complicated and it only takes a few minutes to separate the sticky strands of pasta.

Put the hot dog at the end of the pasta and roll it along so it tightly wraps around the dog. The pasta will stick to itself so it stays tight. The tighter they are now, the better the carbonara hot dogs will taste in the end.

Frying the carbonara hot dogs

Preheat a fryer to 350. Drop the dogs into the hot oil gently, one at a time, to seal the pasta around the hot dog. The pasta will get crispy and the hot dog skin will get rippled and bubbly. Set the carbonara hot dogs on a rack to cool a few minutes before putting them into the buns.

deep fried hot dog wrapped with pasta and ready for carbonara sauce

The sauce

The sauce on the hot dogs was a modified hollandaise to taste more like carbonara. Normally hollandaise at it’s most basic is hot butter drizzled into egg yolks. The yolks usually have mustard and lemon juice mixed in. I took out the lemon juice and doubled the mustard to pair with the hot dogs. I also added some pancetta fat to the butter, and parmesan cheese to the yolks.

Prepping the hot dog buns

I brushed the buns with a garlic and herb butter and toasted them in a frying pan so it was basically a garlic bread bun.

Top with lots of black pepper and more pancetta.

Incredible! Crispy pasta and pancetta, creamy carbonara sauce, those savory hot dogs, all on a garlic bread bun! And don’t forget to go heavy on the black pepper!

Twists on this dish

If you didn’t want to do the whole pasta wrapping and deep frying for these carbonara hot dogs, you could just add some cooked pasta to the bun as a topping. You could also do that thing where people push spaghetti through the hot dog and then boil the whole thing. Like this, but with full hot dogs.

If you want more unique hot dogs ideas, check out my build your own hot dog bar, these kung pao dogs, or these elote style corn dogs!

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Carbonara Hot Dogs

Hot dogs wrapped in spaghetti and deep fried, topped with a carbonara inspired eggy sauce, and lots of parm and black pepper. Served in a garlic bread bun!

Prep Time20

Cook Time10

Total Time30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American, Italian

Keyword: Hot Dog, Mash-Up, pasta

Servings: Hot Dogs

Calories: 935kcal

Equipment

fryer

Ingredients

BUNS

4 hot dog buns
1/4 cup butter melted
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried italian herb blend

HOT DOGS

1/2 pound spaghetti cooked according to package instructions and strained.
4 hot dogs
oil for frying
1/4 pound diced pancetta

SAUCE

3 tablespoons butter
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 cup grated parm
salt and cracked black pepepr

Instructions

Stir the herbs and garlic powder into the butter and brush it onto the buns. Toast under the broiler or in a frying pan to lightly brown on all sides. Set aside.
Place about 15 pieces of spaghetti on a parchment paper all lined up. Put a hot dog at one end at a slight diagonal and roll the pasta around the hot dog as tight as you can. Set aside and repeat with the remaining hot dogs.
Preheat oil to 350. Fry the hot dogs one by one until the pasta is crispy and the hot dog is heated through. You want to do this one by one cause the pasta can be sticky when first added to the pan. Try and just drop it in and leave it alone for a bit until the pasta starts to firm up. Then remove to a drying rack.
Cook the pancetta in a pan until crispy. Remove from pan leaving the pancetta fat in the pan. There should be 3-4 tablespoons.
Add butter to the pan with the pancetta fat and stir to combine and melt. Meanwhile, whisk together the yolks, mustard, and parm. Slowly drizzle the hot butter/pancetta fat mixture into the yolks as you continue to whisk and a sauce is formed.
Put the hot dogs into the buns and top with the sauce. Add crispy pancetta on top along with lots of black pepper.

Nutrition