Carbonara with Quail Eggs and Pancetta Recipe

This creamy, rich, salty, satisfying Carbonara with Quail Eggs and Pancetta recipe is a quick and easy recipe that won’t feel like it. Try it for a special dinner.

When I received an email recently inviting me to talk to Brittney Miller, owner of Manchester Farms, about her company’s quail and quail eggs, I was all in. As a journalist, opportunities like this have allowed me to learn about so many things including unfamiliar ingredients. It takes a lot of the fear out of the process when you can ask all the questions before experimenting with something new. And, in terms of SCB, this was a tremendous opportunity to bring useful information to this site.

Miller was fascinating and told me about her family’s business that’s been producing quail and quail eggs since the early-70s when her father left Campbell Soup Company to start his own farm. But what resonated the most centered around her passion for their products — and how good they are.

“Quail eggs specifically are so fun with cooking at home as a substitute for chicken eggs. They are creamier,” Miller said.

Miller said that quail eggs can be substituted 3:1 for chicken eggs.

To open the eggs, she recommended using quail egg scissors — Manchester Farms sells them, but they are also available from other retailers — because they easily open the eggs without getting shell everywhere. Quail egg shells are so fragile and you don’t want fragments in your eggs. With the scissors, you snip the small end of the egg and the yolk and egg white slip right out.

She noted that the scissors are also handy for a more unusual use for quail eggs: some people take quail eggs as a shot, ingesting it in a similar way you might a raw oyster.

“Nutritionally, they are so good for you. Very dense in minerals and vitamins. A doctor told me one time that they are the only natural, full amino acid out there,” Miller said.

Healthline agrees, noting that the tiny eggs with only 14 calories each are packed with vitamin B12, riboflavin, choline and selenium. Some research has also shown that they may increase nasal symptoms like sneezing and congestion. More investigation is needed though to really understand the connection though.

After our conversation, I was anxious to try quail eggs. Miller had spoken so glowingly about their richness that I couldn’t wait to try them in many ways. Initially I thought I would do deviled quail eggs first, but I ended up making scrambled quail eggs. They were rich and delightful, not unlike the free-range chicken eggs we get from local farmers. But Manchester Farms was nice enough to send me plenty of eggs to play with, so I wanted to go further.

Then I started fantasizing about carbonara, a creamy pasta made with eggs, bacon or pancetta, salt and pepper and cheese. It’s a favorite of mine, and one I find so satisfying. Plus, I had pancetta in the fridge waiting to be used along with so many eggs, so it seemed destined.

Making carbonara is a pretty simple process that happens almost entirely while the pasta cooks. For this recipe for Carbonara with Quail Eggs and Pancetta, I worked from a favorite carbonara recipe here on SCB, adapting it to the ingredients. This involved adjusting the number of eggs, the amount of pasta water used and amount of cheese mixed in until it reached creamy, rich perfection.

After a couple of tries, I was so happy with the results.

I made this recipe with grosso pasta — a very thick spaghetti that I bought in Italy over the summer (yes, I hit a supermarket and brought back pasta). If you cannot find it, thick spaghetti or even regular spaghetti will work too. Bucatini is an option as well.

This recipe is so easy to make, which is great. But it’s also one where you need to stay focused for about 25 minutes to pull it off. The active time is no joke. But once it’s done, it’s a delightful treat to enjoy with your loved ones, friends or whoever. Serve it with a green salad.

Although Manchester Farms did provide me with complementary quail eggs, I was under no obligation to include the eggs or the interview in a post or a recipe.