The Easiest Carbonara Pasta Recipe While Camping
In this latest recipe post we share what we believe to be the easiest and best carbonara pasta recipe while camping.
We do love pasta especially with a good glass of red wine. Italian food is one of our favourites and a good pasta dish takes us back to our travels in Italy many years ago eating amazing organic food and drinking the best red wine. Carbonara is my favourite pasta dish, it took me some time to get this just how I like it. So, I thought I might as well share what I believe to be the perfect carbonara pasta recipe while camping, that is simple and quick, but tastes amazing every time.
This carbonara recipe can be made out the back of your 4WD with a single gas burner easily, but even quicker if you have a double gas burner. In this method we will show you how we make this with one gas burner on our Svnty6 Fab rear barn door table out the back of our 76 Series Land Cruiser.
Servings
The below list of ingredients is for two people. Increase the ingredients for more people as required.
Ingredients
We have listed quantities of each ingredient below, but to be perfectly honest we do not measure out much of these and just go with the flow. As we have made this carbonara recipe so many times, we basically throw these ingredients together and taste, if we feel like we need a little more of something then we will just add it.
- 100-150ml of cream.
- 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese (finely grated is best but doesn’t really matter).
- 1-2 egg yolks.
- 2 pieces of bacon chopped into pieces.
- Approximately 150 grams of fettucine pasta (1/3 of a 500-gram bag), you can also use spaghetti pasta as well. Any long pasta will be perfect.
- Parsley flakes.
- Salt & pepper for seasoning.
Carbonara Pasta Method
Cook the Pasta
When using a single gas burner, we start by cooking the pasta first. So, boil up some water in a saucepan. Once the water has boiled, add salt to the water, and then approximately 1/3 of a 500-gram bag of fettucine pasta. You can use any long type of pasta like spaghetti. Cook the pasta as per the time on the packet, usually 10-12 minutes.
Make the Carbonara Sauce
While the pasta is cooking prepare the other ingredients as follows. To make the carbonara sauce, add the cream to a bowl. We usually add approximately half of a standard cream container which is around 300mls. Then add the grated parmesan cheese to the bowl. We have said 1/2 a cup, but we usually just pour some in and after all the ingredients have been mixed, we taste to see if we need to add any more. Then add salt and pepper for seasoning. Once that has been done, crack your egg and add the egg yolk only. You do not want to add any of the egg white to the mixture. We use one or two egg yolks when preparing this for two people. Once the egg yolk has been added to the bowl, mix all these ingredients with a fork until the mixture has combined nicely.
Now is a good time to taste the mixture. You want the mixture to be thick, not too runny and have a strong parmesan flavour. If you find the parmesan flavour is not strong and the mixture is too runny, add more parmesan cheese and mix. You will work out exactly how you like the sauce to taste once you have made this a few times. I like my carbonara to have a strong parmesan flavour, so this really comes down to everyone’s taste. Now that the sauce has been made, sit this to the side.
Fry the Bacon
Cut the bacon into pieces. We usually cut these into rectangles, but it doesn’t really matter. By now the pasta should be almost cooked. Once cooked, drain the pasta, and set to the side. We usually just leave the pasta in our colander. Then in the same saucepan you cooked the pasta, fry up the bacon. Depending on the amount of fat on the bacon you will probably not need to add any oil. Once the bacon is nice and crispy turn the gas off.
Mix It All Together for the Perfect Camping Carbonara
Now add the pasta to the saucepan and mix in with the fried bacon. This will cool down the saucepan which is what you want before adding the carbonara sauce. If the saucepan is too hot the eggs will scramble, you do not want this to occur. Now add the carbonara sauce to the saucepan and mix. Once all the ingredients are combined, sprinkle parsley flakes over the pasta and mix one more time.
Serve immediately. You can sprinkle a little more parmesan over the top and add a bit more salt and pepper depending on your taste.
This is an extremely simple but tasty carbonara pasta recipe to make while camping. It can all be done in the one saucepan reducing the amount of cleaning required. Dry pasta is easy to pack and lasts for a very long time. Most people carry bacon for breakfasts so you will usually have bacon in your camp fridge. The other ingredients like cream and parmesan cheese can be used in loads of other dishes. For a variation to this dish, you can add mushrooms if you like these and have them in your camp setup.
If you love pasta, then we highly recommend you give this carbonara pasta recipe a crack when camping. It is so easy to make and tastes superb. Who said you cannot have fine Italian food while camping? It definitely was not me!
For more camp cooking recipes, you can read our other posts here. To keep up to date on future stories join the 4WD Adventurer Community here. For more regular updates please follow us on Instagram.
Thanks for reading this carbonara pasta camping recipe. If you have any questions or comments, please share them at the bottom of this story.
Recipe & method by Peter.
15/05/2022 @ 11:17 PM
Hi I use a Single Burner Canister Stove & Camp Oven when I have a fire like you. I also love my Pasta. Ten to fifteen minutes boiling water for Pasta seemed wasteful to me. Turns out Pasta has a hydration step & a cooking step. Now I throw my Pasta in a bowl with a couple of inches of cold water and let it hydrate for around 10 minutes. Meantime I cook my Sauce then add the hydrated Pasta & half a cup of pasta water and cook together for a minute or two. Less water, less Gas, no oily salted water, no juggling hot pans and a better chance of getting it al dente without frequent sampling. It works better with spirals and shells than fine spaghetti. I hope it helps. Cheers – John
16/05/2022 @ 10:48 AM
G’day John,
Thanks for reading and sharing your feedback mate.
That is great to know and I am definitely going to try this next time we cook pasta. Sounds like a fantastic way to conserve water and gas, use less gear, and easier to clean up. Really appreciate you sharing what works for you, great to find out new ways to make life easier.
Cheers,
Peter