Spaghetti alla carbonara recipe
When people outside of Italy think of carbonara, they usually think of pasta, often tagliatelle, smothered in a sauce made from slices of ham and mushroom in cream. The original, Roman carbonara recipe is very different, however; it has no cream, no mushrooms and it is usually made not with tagliatelle but with spaghetti. This carbonara is quick and fairly easy to cook, and requires only a handful of ingredients.
Origins
There are many different stories about how carbonara came into being. The name probably comes from the Italian word carbone, meaning coal, and people have suggested that it could originally have been a coal miner's dish. Another theory suggests that it was favoured by an Italian secret society called the carbonari. Another theory is that it was made with ingredients, ie eggs and pancetta, which could sometimes be purchased from the same people who delivered your coal. Or, it takes its name from the specks of black pepper which resemble coal dust. Although largely accepted as a Roman dish (perhaps created at the end of World War II as a way of using the American troops' bacon and powdered egg rations) the original carbonara recipe has also been claimed as a 19th century Neapolitan creation.
Ingredients (per person)
- 100g spaghetti
- one egg (one per person, plus one extra yolk)
- a handful of diced pancetta
- a heaped tablespoon of grated parmesan or pecorino (the amount of cheese, and how finely you dice the pancetta, should be adjusted according to preference)
Recipe
The basic carbonara recipe is quick and easy to make. First, get the spaghetti boiling in plenty of salted water. Next, fry the pancetta in a good dash of olive oil. Beat the eggs and the extra yolk together in a bowl.
When the pasta is cooked, drain it but put a bowl under the colendar in order to retain some of the water; you may need that later. Now return the pasta to the pan, and stir in first the pancetta with the hot oil, and then the beaten eggs. The egg will cook in the heat from the pasta, but here is where the flair comes in; you need to stir the egg into the mix so that it cooks into a cream and not hundreds of pieces of tiny omelette. Add the cheese, and if the mixture is too dry, stir in a little of the cooking water from the pasta (no more than a spoonful). Serve with coarse-ground black pepper.
Variations
It's possible to make variations of carbonara using different meats and cheeses. Two tasty combinations are parmesan with Italian sausage (skin the sausages and crumble them into the frying pan), and gruyere with speck. Finally, if you can get it, to be truly authentic you should use not diced pancetta but guanciale, or pig's cheek.
See also...
...our recipes for cacio e pepe and bucatini all'amatriciana.
