Linguine Carbonara Dinner Party: Quick, Easy & Inexpensive

I recently hosted a small dinner party with my husband and two friends, featuring Linguine Carbonara. This is one of our favorite meals, and one of my favorite to make, as it's easy, inexpensive, and a total crowd-pleaser. I made way too much, but somehow we managed to finish the entire pot.

Linguine Carbonara is relatively inexpensive to make, and the recipe can easily be adjusted if more people decide to pop over for dinner (as I've found often happens when you announce you're making this dish). The entire dinner for four ran me about $30, and could have been made even less expensive by using bacon instead of pancetta (which accounted for about $11 of the total) or a less highfalutin' brand of parmigiana.

Jordan Reid is the "Domestic Bliss" specialist on NonSociety.com, where she writes about cooking, entertaining, home decor, DIY projects, and married life in general.