5 Minutes Carbonara inspired Ravioli Sauce

Let’s start by a clarification, this is not at all a traditional carbonara recipe. As a proud Italian let me set the record straight: there is not cream or milk in traditional carbonara and you do not use pancetta but rather guanciale. Who can find guanciale outside Italy? Definitely not me and definitely not for a spur of the moment, let’s see what I have in my fridge type of recipe…

Now with this lovely disclaimer out there, let’s start cooking 😊

Making your own fresh pasta is shorter than you might think (from ingredients out to pasta ready to eat, I would say around 1h to 1h15), I just cannot make it regularly at night for my family after a full day at work. A great shortcut in this case is ready-made ravioli. They are full of flavor due to their filling and present a great base to customize with a sauce. My favorite brand is the Italian Rana, but of course pick your own based on your local availability. I got a carbonara flavor, but prosciutto crudo or even cooked ham fillings would work beautifully with this sauce.

The focus of your 5min labour is rather the sauce for tonight: a very very quick inspired carbonara sauce. Why a carbonara inspired sauce with carbonara ravioli and not something else completely? Because carbonara flavors are the star of the dish and other flavors would have just competed and confused the dish. They are also inherently balanced between umami, creamy, and peppery, so they do not need another type of sauce for balance.

I used milk to make it lighter instead of cream and corn starch to bind it all together and thicken the sauce. Of course, you could use starchy pasta water or even make a roux (a mixture of butter and flour), but this is 5min pasta so we love to use shortcuts 😊

For balance of the fatty elements, do not forget to put a bit more black pepper in the sauce than you are used to. This will not make the dish overly spicy but rather balance it out with a bit of bitterness. Finally, as with all pasta dishes, the final step of combining the ravioli and the sauce in the pan is key. This will allow the ravioli to soak up the sauce and get fully coated by the sauce. If you do not want an additional pan to wash, just anticipate by preparing the sauce in a pan large enough to receive the ravioli for a last stir.

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• 1/4 cup or 30 grs of pancetta or bacon cubes (or guanciale if you can find it!)
• Half a cup or 100 ml of milk
• 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
• Half a cup or 50 gr of Parmigiano Reggiano
• 2 portions of carbonara ravioli (cooked ham of prosciutto work as well, I used the rana brand)
• Blackpepper

• Prepare the salted water to boil (salt in water will not make it longer to boil, it is myth)
• In the meantime, cut the pancetta into small cubes and put on medium heat in a sauté pan large enough to receive the ravioli later.
• Dissolve the cornstarch in a half a cup of water. This will allow the cornstarch to blend in with the milk instead of bulking up.
• On a low heat: add the milk, the cornstarch water, the black pepper and the parmigiano to your pancetta. If you add the cornstarch on high heat, it will solidify too quickly and create lumps.
• The water should be boiling by now, add the ravioli.
• When the sauce boils the cornstarch will thicken: it will create a mess-free simple creamy sauce. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper.
• Take out the ravioli 30 sec earlier than needed as they will finish to cook in the sauce.
• Add the ravioli to the sauce to combine with the sauce to in the pan before serving.

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Like quick ravioli sauces? Check out my Porcini sauce for ravioli!

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