Coffee Carbonara
People question the idea of putting coffee into pasta more often than any other crazy recipe ideas I have. I put marshmallow on a burger and no one flinched, but for some reason, coffee in pasta is weird to everyone.
Well, today I am here to say stop questioning this amazing flavor combination and just go with it. This version of carbonara should almost be called breakfast pasta because it combines bacon, eggs, and coffee into each delicious bite. The eggs form that luscious creamy sauce you all know from carbonara and the addition of coffee adds a unique bitterness to the dish. Some asparagus adds a much-needed freshness and always pair great with eggs.
Not many ingredients needed to make this simple and amazing dish.
Heat some milk and add the coffee, then strain out the grounds. This is best done with a French press or cheese cloth.
Cook the pasta about 8 minutes until al dente.
Meanwhile, cook the bacon until crispy and add the asparagus.
Add the super strong coffee flavored milk to the eggs. Adding milk to carbonara can be a sin to Italians, but I needed a little to carry the coffee flavor into the dish.
Add the pasta to the bacon and asparagus and cook another 2 minutes.
Then vigorously stir the hot pasta into the room temperature egg and coffee mixture. There is also Parmesan cheese in there. Lots of it. The eggs and cheese will form the sauce for the pasta.
Then try really hard to not just eat this entire bowl yourself.
This pasta has such a great creamy almost latte-esque flavor.
I used red pepper flakes instead of the cracked black pepper traditional in carbonara because the heat and the flavorful chilies actually pair really well with coffee.
The creamy slightly bitter pasta is a perfect match for the salty bacon and cheese, and the asparagus gives everything that nice spring freshness
Coffee Carbonara
A carbonara recipe with deep flavors of coffee and parmesan, and a fresh springtime addition of asparagus.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup Italian Roast Ground Coffee
- 5 slices bacon cut into thin strips
- 1/2 pound spaghetti
- 1 bunch asparagus sliced in half the long way woody stems removed
- 1 egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup grated parmesean cheese
Instructions
- Heat the milk to almost boiling in a pot on the stove or in the microwave. Pour into a bowl and stir in the coffee. Allow to steep for 10 minutes, and strain through a cheesecloth or a coffee filter. You could also do this in a french press.
- Bring water to a boil for the pasta. Drop the pasta into the water.
- Add the bacon to a frying pan and cook until starting to crisp. Add the asparagus and cook 3 minutes.
- Add the pasta to the pan when it is just al dente. Cook 2 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, yolks, parm, and coffee milk mixture in a large bowl.
- Pour the contents of the pan into the bowl with the egg mixture. Stir well as the heat from the pasta turns the eggs and cheese into a luscious sauce for the pasta.
- Serve with additional cheese and red pepper flakes.
Sounds pretty fantastic to me. I mean, coffee + bacon? That’s the recipe for nirvana, right?
Curious if you have ever tried cooking the pasta in a batch of coffee, or would the boiling temp needed to cook the pasta make the coffee too bitter and unusable for the pasta? Curious to see what you think.
Yes, I actually have cooked pasta in coffee a few times. It works great but isn’t always worth the effort of brewing so much coffee!
I like the sound of coffee carbonara. It does sound a bit like breakfast though but I’ll try it for a supper dish.
I was skeptical but tried this- not bad but def not as good as traditional recipes – the extra flavor of coffee just interfered and the milkfat to cut the bitter just not worth the calories and the flavor was inferior to traditional recipes – I did like asparagus addition- I so agree with the Italian traditionalists- this dish is plenty creamy from egg and parm mixed together then vigorously mixed into piping hot pasta -adding hot pasta water – topped with lots of fresh parsley-the coffee/cream idea adds calories – and while this recipe is not bad my husband and I both found it was not as good (and more unhealthy ) than my traditional recipe.
honestly, this should be illegal.