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Risotto Carbonara has the same traditional flavors of a classic carbonara dish – but swaps in Arborio rice for the pasta.
This Risotto Carbonara is my latest comfort food obsession! Creamy arborio rice is combined with smoky bacon and zesty Genoa salami in a rich and cheesy sauce.
This is absolutely delicious, and you can serve it for dinner with a simple salad on the side. Or, it can be served as a side dish alongside grilled or roasted meats.
What is Risotto Carbonara?
Let’s break it down:
- Risotto is a northern Italian rice dish cooked with broth until it reaches a creamy consistency.
- Carbonara is traditionally a pasta dish made with egg yolks, hard cheese (such as Parmesan and/or Romano), cured pork, and freshly cracked black pepper.
Our Risotto Carbonara is a delicious marriage of the two – combining the same smoky flavors of a carbonara in creamy risotto instead of pasta.
Ask my husband Jack – who will tell you that I almost always order spaghetti carbonara when we go out to dinner. So when I say that Risotto Carbonara is even better – then you know this dish must be good!
Before you run out to the supermarket to buy the ingredients to make this dish – I should note one thing. Jack came up with the idea of adding diced Genoa salami to our Risotto Carbonara, which is not a typical carbonara ingredient. (Most are made with bacon.)
Ever since we made this quiche recipe years ago, we’ve loved adding some lightly fried salami to some of our dishes. Genoa salami has a unique taste – and when fried – has a sweet/salty almost candy-type texture and flavor, and it was fantastic added to this Risotto Carbonara! If you prefer, you can just use all bacon instead.
You may enjoy these other risotto recipes:
- Mushroom Risotto
- Three Cheese Risotto
- Asparagus Lemon Risotto
- Butternut Squash Risotto
- Farro Risotto with Mushrooms and Tuscan Kale
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Risotto Carbonara
Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces bacon, diced
4 ounces sliced Genoa salami, diced
3 cups chicken stock, homemade if possible
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup onions, diced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
Pinch red pepper flakes
1 cup Arborio rice
1/4 cup white wine
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
2 tablespoons Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Salt as needed (depending on how salty your stock is)
Instructions
Before you begin, have all ingredients measured out. Risotto needs attention once you start cooking it.
In a medium heavy bottomed pan or Dutch oven, over medium heat, add the olive oil and once hot, add the bacon.
Cook the bacon five minutes until almost crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Add the salami and cook only 1-2 minutes to slightly crisp, being careful not to burn. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to the bacon.
Pour the fat into a bowl and wipe the inside of the hot pan with a wad of paper towels to pick up and dark pieces or sediment.
Heat the stock in a separate small sauce pan and keep hot.
Return the Dutch oven to medium heat and measure in two tablespoons of the bacon fat along with the butter.
Once the butter has melted, add the onions and cook three minutes.
Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook one minute then add the rice and cook for two minutes.
Add the wine and once the wine evaporates, reduce the heat to medium low and start adding hot chicken stock one half cup at a time, making sure that each addition gets absorbed in before adding more.
After about 15-20 minutes, all of the stock should be in and absorbed. Cover the pot and remove from heat and let sit five minutes.
While the rice sits, in a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks and heavy cream.
After the rice sat for five minutes, scoop out spoonfuls of the rice and whisk into the cream and egg mixture to temper the eggs. After adding a cup or so, stir this mixture back into the rice pot.
Off heat add in the reserved cooked bacon and salami, the Parmesan and Romano cheese, the chopped Italian parsley and the white pepper.
Taste and add only enough salt to season the rice. The bacon and salami are salty and your stock may be salty, so you may not need any additional salt.
Stir and serve and if it gets too thick, loosen with additional stock or water.
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Just had this for dinner. Delish! I’ll definitely make it again.
Thanks Chandra!
Delicious! Who would what thought carbonara would work with risotto! I added mushrooms with the bacon, and spinach at the end. I also cooked the risotto in the pressure cooker and towards the end of cook time fried up the bacon and mushrooms. In the pressure cooker I reduced the stock to 2 cups as I do with other risotto recipes in pressure cooker.
Thanks Katrina – great to know this recipe can be adapted to a pressure cooker!
This was delicious!
Thanks Jamie!
Fabulous! A little time consuming but worth it!
Thanks Debi!
Heerlijke risotto ik heb alleen in plaats van salami gorizo gedaan die is wat pittiger en parrano strooikaas en dana blu kaas heerlijk ♥️♥️
Thank you Tina!!
I’m sure it will taste great, but it took over an hour and over twice the stock to cook the rice. Is there a trick to speeding up the cooking time?
Hi Nathan – Sounds like you might have been simmering the stock and rice over too high of a heat – so it the liquid evaporated/cooked off rather than it being absorbed into the rice – which is also why you needed more stock. You want to keep the heat under the pot on the lower side so it simmers, not boils. We’ve also found that a smaller sauce pan works better than a larger, wider pan that has more surface area. Hope that helps!
I made this recipe for my husband and he absolutely loved it! I made it while he was out of the house, but I’m vegetarian so I left home for a work trip just crossing my fingers that he would enjoy it. I don’t cook meat often and I was so worried I had botched the recipe along the way. Well, he absolutely love it! He insisted we must save this recipe for future use. Thank you so so much for helping me feed my husband a great dinner. The four servings were completely gone when I came home from my work trip 3 days later. It was a truly joyful moment for me.
You’re very welcome Ariana! So glad the risotto was a hit!
I’m a big fan of risotto but this recipe takes it to another level and will be something I make regularly. I used all bacon and all parmesan, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. (Well, I heavied up on the bacon a bit, but still!) Thanks for this!
You’re welcome John! We’re so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I’ve made this recipe four or five times at this point and it turns out delicious every time! As someone who almost always changes something in a recipe, this is one that I’ve never had to tinker with to get a yummy result. Thank you so much for sharing this 🙂
You’re welcome Kelly – so glad you are enjoying the recipe!
Was not a big fan of this recipe. Made it exactly like the instructions said. All I tasted was bacon. If I’m going to take the time to make a risotto dish, I have about 3 or 4 I make on a semi regular basis, and will go with one of those options.
Thanks for your feedback Dan. Carbona pasta – which inspired this risotto recipe – IS predominantly flavored with bacon, so the flavor is by design.