Mark Filippelli’s charcoal spaghetti carbonara with vegan egg yolk and mushroom pancetta is a fun, all-vegan take on the classic. It uses activated charcoal to give the pasta a bold black color. You only need one tablespoon, but it makes a big impact. The pasta is homemade, so you start from scratch and roll it out yourself.

The carbonara sauce comes together with soaked cashews, almond milk, lemon juice, and nutritional yeast. It’s creamy, rich, and full of flavor — no eggs or dairy needed. Then there’s the mushroom pancetta. You dice king brown mushrooms, coat them in a smoky, sweet glaze, and roast them until golden. They add texture and depth to the dish.

The best part is the vegan egg yolk. It’s made with sweet potato, vegan butter, and a few science-y steps like reverse spherification. It looks like a real yolk and adds a rich pop to the final plate.

To bring it all together, toss the cooked pasta with the sauce and pancetta, plate it up, and drop the vegan yolk right in the center. Finish with some fresh herbs and vegan parmesan. It’s a full experience — hands-on, creative, and packed with flavor. Make it when you want to cook something different and impress someone at dinner.

Charcoal spaghetti carbonara with vegan egg yolk

This vegan carbonara recipe combines easier to more technical elements that make one delicious pasta dish. Give it a try when you have the time to get creative and experiment.

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Ingredients

Vegan Egg Yolk

For the puree

1 sweet potato medium/ large
2 tbsp vegan butter such as Nuttelex melted
1 tsp chia seeds
½ tsp turmeric powder
⅔ cup of water
⅙ tsp of black Himalayan salt
¼ tsp sea salt

For the water bath

1 liter distilled or bottled water
1 & ⅔ tsp sodium alginate

To blend with the puree

¾ tsp calcium lactate
1/16 tsp xanthan gum
200 g purée

Tagliatelle Classic Pasta

Classic vegan pasta recipe

5 & ½ cups fine semolina flour
1 & ½ cups of lukewarm water
3 pinches of salt
1 tsp olive oil

Smoked Mushroom Pancetta

Pancetta Glaze

¼ cup salt
2 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 cups golden syrup
¾ cup liquid smoke
¼ cup apple cider vinegar

Mushroom

½ kilo / 1.1lb king brown mushrooms

Carbonara Sauce

1 cup cashews soaked in water overnight
1 & ½ cups olive oil
1 cup almond mylk
2 & ½ tsp lemon juice
1 & ¾ tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Bringing it all together

2 & ½ cups charcoal tagliatelle *For a GF option, use a gluten free tagliatelle. We make our gluten free pastas from chickpea flour.
¼ cup smoked mushroom pancetta
½ cup carbonara sauce
½ cup water
2 vegan egg yolks see above
Leaves for garnish
Salt to taste
Plant-based parmesan

Instructions

Vegan Egg Yolk

Make the puree

To make the purée, wrap sweet potato in foil and roast in the oven at 200°C / 390°F for 50–70 minutes or until it’s soft. Unwrap potato and peel skin, add all ingredients to your blender and blend until smooth. You now have your purée, made with purée talent.

Get ready

Blend your water and sodium alginate on low for 1 minute, pour into a flat bottom container and leave overnight (this is your water bath). When you are ready to get your sphere on and have your purée ready, take your container out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature.
In the meantime, add your purée, calcium lactate and xanthan gum into the blender and blend for 1 minute. Let both the puree/liquid and alginate bath stand, allowing time for any trapped air bubbles to rise to the surface and pop. Trapped air bubbles will prevent the spheres from sinking in the spherification bath, which can cause an uneven skin to form.

Reverse spherification

Get a round tablespoon or measuring spoon, fill it with your blended purée mix and slowly add it to your water bath. At this time you add as many as you need but make sure they are not touching. Allow them 3–5 minutes to chill in the bath to set. Once set you can keep them in a separate fresh water bowl and they are ready to explode.

Tagliatelle Classic Pasta

In a bowl or on a wooden board, mix together the flour, the salt, the oil, the color (if you are adding some) and the water. Add the water a little at a time while kneading the pasta, until all the flour comes together in a smooth dough. Some doughs will need more wetness than others to come together. If you are finding it is not quite coming together, slowly add additional lukewarm water, but be careful to not over-do it. Knead for at least 10 minutes, then cover in film and set aside to rest for at least 30 minutes (up to an hour).
Use a pasta machine or a rolling pin (or a wine bottle) to roll the dough, then cut it into your favorite shape. For those of you rolling with a pin, split your dough into two balls, speaking of which do you know where pasta goes to dance? The meat ball (or for the purpose of this book the eggplant ball). Place one of the dough balls on a floured surface and roll it out until it is thin.
Dust again with flour to stop it from sticking and loosely roll it up like a roll up. With a ruler or eye test, measure about 8mm (the official width of tagliatelle), and with your best knife cut it into strips. With super clean fingers, unroll them and separate them into bunches (bunch size should be one plate full).
When you are ready to cook the fresh pasta, drop into plenty of generously salted boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes (the salted water should basically taste like the sea before you put the pasta in)

Smoked Mushroom Pancetta

To make your glaze, throw all your dry ingredients in a blender and blitz on high. Slowly add your liquids as you go until nice and smooth. Dice your mushrooms into 1cm squares, give a generous coat of the glaze and oven roast on high until golden brown. And it’s as easy as that, just pop in the oven for about 25 minutes at 200°C / 390°F.

Carbonara Sauce

Soak your cashews. The next day, strain away all the liquid and place the soaked nuts in a big mixing bowl with your mylk, lemon juice, paprika, salt & yeast. Slowly add the nuts into the blender until nice and smooth, slowly adding the olive oil as you go. Season to taste. Store in your fridge for up to 7 days.

Bringing It All Together

! If you have made fresh pasta you will only need to cook it in salted boiling water for two minutes. If you are using packet pasta, check the recommended cooking time. Bring salted water to boil (salted water should taste like the beach) and add your pasta.
In a separate pan on medium heat add half a cup of water, half a cup of carbonara sauce, a quarter cup of your mushroom pancetta and bring to a heat. Drain your pasta, transfer it to the pan with the sauce, add a generous amount of salt and toss it together in the pan until it bands together (about a minute).
Now you are ready to plate up, transfer to your favorite pasta bowls, cover in plant-parmesan, add your favorite leaves (basil or similar). Now for the final and most eggciting part, add your egg yolk to the center of your pasta (egg marks the spot) and serve immediately.

This recipe was republished with permission from This Cookbook is a Huge Missed Steak by Mark Filippelli. Out in the US on April 8th.

Charcoal Spaghetti Carbonara With Vegan Egg Yolk

If you fancy getting creative in the kitchen this weekend, this carbonara is a great recipe to try