Top pairings | 6 of the best wine pairings for spaghetti carbonara

Top pairings

6 of the best wine pairings for spaghetti carbonara

Spaghetti carbonara - spaghetti with a creamy bacon and egg sauce - is one of my all-time favourite pasta dishes but what’s the best wine pairing for it?

I’d go for a white rather than a red - and a crisp dry Italian white at that.

* Pinot grigio - there’s so much ropey Pinot Grigio around it’s easy to forget its virtues as a crisp, clean, immensely food-friendly white. Look out for ones from the Alto Adige region. Pinot Bianco (aka Pinot Blanc) would be good too

* Gavi di Gavi - another very popular Italian white for those who like a fuller, slightly smoother white

* Soave - same reasoning. Smooth, dry, brilliantly food-friendly.

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Comments: 17 (Add)

Pep Daniels on February 21 2022 at 18:28

Reading these comments I wonder if your followers appreciate the point of your articles!

If you want recipes this is obviously not the place for you.

If you want to plug your articles on sites which overtly promote sponsored products I'd hope that such comments would actually be removed.

Having said that, I find most comments here interesting and constructive.

Thank you Fiona, next time I have carbonara I shall remember your recommendations.

Fiona Beckett on May 18 2021 at 09:26

When I say creamy I mean creamy texture not that it should contain cream! (Mine doesn't!)

Michael on May 17 2021 at 23:14

Drink what you like I say. But,NEVER, EVER, EVER PUT CREAM in Carbonara!!!!!

Marco on August 6 2020 at 12:42

no cream in carbonara! never!

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Luis Granes on February 14 2020 at 14:22

Pinot Grigio sound good to me but how about Pinot Gris???
I also agree there is not such thing as Olive Oil and Garlig in the original Carbonara recipe. But then again, everyone has its own way of doing it.

Fiona Beckett on January 17 2020 at 10:34

I know. Controversial. But some people do!

Antonino on September 29 2019 at 19:25

Please... Garlic on the carbonara ?
No no no real Carbonara is not garlic and parsley and with Guanciale (Pig cheek) beacon can be an alternative if you can’t found guanciale.
And you can pairing as well with a sparkling Prosecco
Or cava or America Brut as well Champagne .

Fiona Beckett on September 24 2019 at 08:35

Er, it isn’t a recipe - it’s a series of wine recommendations.

abramowitz on September 24 2019 at 06:57

that is, possibly, the worst recipe for this great dish I have ever read.

Nick Brett on January 23 2019 at 14:46

Pinot Grigio always scares me because there is so much mass produced rubbish out there. Can you recommend a really good one that is easy to get ho,d of?

Fiona Beckett on February 12 2018 at 17:24

Nice one Pam!

And sorry to the others who took the time and trouble to comment on this post. I failed to notice them in my email. Good point about Frascati too!

Pam on February 12 2018 at 17:22

Ah, but you could take "local" to the next level. If you were making your carbonara with English bacon and eggs, let's say, I would pair with an English white (Chardonnay or Madeleine Angevine) ;)

Adrinho on May 2 2017 at 19:57

I agree with Chris, Frascati is the best match for 'simple' carbonara.

Chef Riggy on September 16 2015 at 03:23

I want to use Chef Michael Lomanaco's recipe for Carbonara to commemorate 9/11 -- he was Head Chef of Windows on the World on 9/11/01, and this was one dish on his menu at the time. He used Pancetta in lieu of bacon.
TASTE
SHOW #TS4904

SPAGHETTI CARBONARA

1/2 pound piece of Pancetta
4 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 large eggs
1/4 cup freshly grated Romano
1/2 cup freshly grated ParmigianoReggiano
A liberal grinding of pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 pound cooked spaghetti, drained and hot

Cut a 1/2 pound piece of pancetta. Crush and peel the garlic. Put the
garlic in a small saute pan with the extra virgin olive oil and saute until
it turns deep gold. Remove the garlic from the pan and put in the strips of
pancetta. Cook them until they begin to crisp on the edges. Add the wine.
Cook the wine down for 2 minutes.

Break the eggs into a pasta serving bowl. Beat them lightly with a fork.
Then add the Romano, Parmigiano-Reggiano, pepper and parsley. Mix
thoroughly.

Add drained, hot pasta to the bowl and toss rapidly to coat the strands
well. Add the Pancetta and wine. Toss again and serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings

Copyright, 1996, TV FOOD NETWORK, G.P., All Rights Reserved

Miguel on May 26 2014 at 22:19

Just had this with a good Sangiovese and it was divine.

Chris King on April 23 2013 at 21:42

I try not to comment on food and wine matching; I am a philistine to such things - or is that the People's front of Philistine? Who knows.

However, what often strikes me most about the food and wine recommendations I read, is that there are usually very few recommendations that match food with the local wines. Carbonara is, by historical links, a Roman dish. Yet all of the Italian recommendations are from the North. Are there really no Laziale wines to go with a simple carbonara? No love for Frascati?

I appreciate I am reading this in the UK, but it would still be good to get a match from the same postcode; rather than just the same country. I mean, would you match a Piemonte dish with a laziale wine?

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