Carbonara vs. Alfredo: What Are The Differences?

Carbonara is an Italian sauce made with egg, cheese, and diced guanciale (cured pork cheek). Chefs typically serve this sauce over spaghetti to create spaghetti alla carbonara, a classic Italian dish. To make the pasta dish, chefs cook the pasta in a combination of raw egg yolks, grated cheese, and a little reserved pasta water. The addition of tiny cubes of guanciale, or cured pork jowl, lends this Italian dish a crispy pop of flavor. Carbonara sauce does not feature heavy cream—the dish derives its creaminess from the emulsion of egg yolks with cheese and starchy pasta water.

Chefs must make authentic spaghetti carbonara quickly, so although it only has a few ingredients, timing is everything.

Alfredo sauce is an Italian specialty made with a base of butter or heavy cream mixed with Parmesan cheese. Making Alfredo sauce involves sautéing garlic and butter together, adding heavy cream, and stirring until it becomes thick and creamy. Standard garnishes include grated cheese and chopped parsley.

A common way to serve this white sauce is with long pastas like fettuccine. Alfredo sauce can also act as a base to include other ingredients, such as chicken breast to make chicken Alfredo.

Roman restaurant owner Alfredo Di Lelio invented fettuccine all’Alfredo (fettuccine Alfredo) in the 1910s to sate his pregnant wife’s cravings. However, you can trace the origin of Alfredo pasta’s global popularity back to when Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, one of Hollywood’s early “it” couples, visited Alfredo’s trattoria in Rome, tried the pasta, and got hooked.

Alfredo and carbonara sauce are very creamy, as antidotes to the typical tomato-based sauces (like Bolognese or marinara sauce) for which Italian food is known. However, there are a few notable differences between these tasty Italian delicacies:

• Ingredients: The main difference between the two sauces comes down to the ingredients. While each sauce recipe uses hard cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano, carbonara pasta sauce relies on eggs for its creamy texture rather than heavy cream. Carbona also includes pancetta or guanciale for extra saltiness. Unlike carbonara, Alfredo sauce includes generous amounts of heavy cream and butter. Chefs use ground black pepper to garnish carbonara and fresh parsley to finish Alfredo.
• Cooking process: Thick, creamy Alfredo sauce involves cooking down butter and heavy cream in a sauté pan or saucepan to make a thick, rich cream sauce. On the other hand, carbonara involves combining pasta and a bit of pasta water with rendered guanciale, raw eggs, and grated cheese. The egg and cheese emulsify into a deceptively light and creamy sauce to coat your pasta.
• Flavor: Adding pancetta to the carbonara recipe gives the dish its sharp, salty taste and cuts through the creaminess. Alternatively, Alfredo sauce is creamier and richer, without the textural and flavor variation of pancetta.
• Pasta: Fettuccine is the most popular choice of pasta for Alfredo sauce, whereas spaghetti is a common option for carbonara.

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