recipe-spaghetti-carbonara

Recipe for spaghetti carbonara: the original one

The original recipe for spaghetti carbonara

Spaghetti carbonara is a myth of Italian cuisine. Nevertheless, few know the true history and the proper way to prepare it.

Even for me like Italian took me a while to reach a high-quality result of preparing this dish and, you should have seen my face when I discovered the story, so fascinating.  That’s why I decided to share, with you, both of them: recipe and history.

I suggest you read all the paragraphs in their order and invite you to sign up to join our FREE live cooking session.

Table of contents

Spaghetti carbonara is a myth of Italian cuisine. Nevertheless, few know the true history and the proper way to prepare it.

Even for me like Italian took me a while to reach a high-quality result of preparing this dish and, you should have seen my face when I discovered the story, so fascinating.  That’s why I decided to share, with you, both of them: recipe and history.

I suggest you read all the paragraphs in their order and invite you to sign up to join our FREE live cooking session.

Table of Contents

Spaghetti carbonara: a myth of Italian cuisine

Spaghetti carbonara is one of the most popular dishes of Italian cuisine. Well known in the world, it is part of the culinary tradition of central Italy. In the absence of a few little secrets, the pasta alla carbonara sauce is probably one of the most difficult to prepare. However, what I find intriguing about this condiment is its history, also unknown to many Italians.

 

Yes, that story to which the charm and variety of flavors of Italian cuisine are closely linked.

Italy, known throughout the world for its pasta with tomato sauce, would not be such if Marco Polo’s navigation had not led him to discover tomatoes, whose literary translation is: golden apple. The same goes for spaghetti, inspired by noodles or potatoes whose transformation led to the realization of famous specialties of traditional Italian cuisine.

Well, even spaghetti alla carbonara seems to be the result of the cultural influence of which Italy is jealous and appreciated guardian.

In search of the origins of the recipe for spaghetti carbonara

Given the premise on Marco Polo, if I said that this dish is traditional of Chinese Cuisine, I would lie unashamedly. The recipe for pasta alla carbonara only appears after the Second World War and, in this case, sees nothing less than American soldiers as protagonists.

Is a myth collapsing? I got a chill of the cold!!!

We do not find a trace of a recipe for spaghetti alla carbonara nor in the Talisman of Happiness, written by Ada Boni in 1930 where all the recipes of the Roman culinary tradition are registered.

It looks as the recipe for spaghetti carbonara seems to have been published for the first time in 1952 in an American gastronomic guide written by Patricia Bronté.

Although the ingredients are NOT those of carbonara spaghetti known today, the first mention of carbonara sauce on an Italian recipes book seems to date back to 1954.

The ingredients reported in this version of spaghetti carbonara are egg, bacon, Gruyere, and garlic.

No, no, no !!! Italian pride rebels.

In 1955 in the Lady in the kitchen, an Italian cookbook was written by Felix Dessì, spaghetti carbonara is presented in a version more similar to today, with the presence of eggs, pepper, parmesan.

Over the years, ingredients such as wine, garlic, onion, parsley, pepper, chili pepper have found space in the carbonara spaghetti recipe. The definitive consecration of the carbonara spaghetti as a national recipe took place in la grande Cucina,  Luigi Carnacina’s recipe book dated 1960.

For the first time, pork cheek is introduced, replacing the bacon, and the cream that will often be present in the carbonara sauce recipe until the end of the 80s.

In today’s version, the spaghetti carbonara includes four simple ingredients, masterfully combined: egg, pecorino cheese, and pork cheek with a generous sprinkle of black pepper.

The history of Spaghetti carbonara between myths and legends

Recognized as a typical dish of Roman cuisine, in reality, is linked to the gastronomic culture of two Italian regions: Lazio (the region of which Rome is the capital) and Abruzzo.

Both these regions are crossed by the Apennines, a gentle mountain range wherein the past abundant flocks of sheep passed to spend the winter in the coastal plains of the south, in particular in the Region of Puglia, and then returned in spring on the fresh and greener meadows of the Apennine heights of central Italy, the transhumance.

Someone wants carbonara sauce to take its name from the Abruzzese lumberjacks who collected wood to make coal. Others say it was the typical dish of shepherds in transhumance but, according to the most accredited sources, the history of spaghetti carbonara seems to be linked to the Americans and the Second World War.

It looks like a traditional dish called ” eggs and cheese” in use at the time had been enriched with meat to satisfy the wishes of Americans, who have always been great consumers of meat.

Still, today the most accredited, documented, and never denied version is that of Renato Gualandi.

This young chef from Bologna was hired in September 1944 to prepare lunch on the occasion of the meeting between the English Eighth Army and the American Fifth Army in the newly liberated city of Riccione.

In his memories Gualandi quotes: “The Americans had fantastic bacon, delicious milk cream, cheese, and egg red powder. I put it all together and served this pasta to the generals and officers for dinner. At the last moment, I decided to put black pepper which gave off an excellent flavor.”

Subsequently, from September 1944 to April 1945, Gualandi was hired as a cook for the American troops in Rome and it seems that it was then that the fame and use of spaghetti carbonara spread in the capital and became a traditional Italian dish.

The original recipe for spaghetti carbonara

Ingredients:

350 gr./ 0.88 pounds of spaghetti
120 gr./ 0.250 pounds of pork cheek
50 gr. / 0.11 pounds of Roman pecorino
3 eggs
Black pepper as wished

Duration: 30 min
Level: challenging
Servings: 4 people

Preparation:
Boil the water for the pasta.

In the meantime, cut the bacon into thin slices (2mm. /0.08 inches) and then into strips of 5mm / 0.20 inches) and cook over low heat until it becomes crispy.

Separately, beat the eggs, add the pecorino and stretch with 40 gr /2.5 ounces of water. Mix with a whisk so that the eggs become creamy and salty.

When the pasta water boils, add sea salt and cook the pasta.

If never done it, read our post “ideal pasta cooking”.

Drain the pasta and saute it in the pan whit the pork cheek to allow the absorption of the pork cheek fat and flavor by the pasta. Turn off the heat, add the mixture of eggs and pecorino and mix everything quickly to avoid the formation of lumps (the effect of the scrambled egg). To get the right creaminess, add some cooking water, if necessary.

Sprinkle fresh black pepper as wished and serve warm.

recipe-spaghetti-carbonara

This is the creamy Spaghetti carbonara you are looking for.

pasta-carbonara-wrong-result

This is the scrambled egg result you should avoid

Spaghetti carbonara is not a day after dish. Do not try to heat them but, in the very rare case you get some leftover, do not throw them away. Even a couple of days later you can beat some eggs, mix with pasta and cook in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil. You will get an excellent Frittata to serve, for example, with a fresh tomato salad.

Little secrets to prepare a superb Spaghetti carbonara

Greenlight for short and long pasta.

The pork cheek, which has a more delicate flavor from the bacon, should be cut into strips and cooked at low heat until it becomes slightly crispy. Btw, nobody kills you by sliding the pork cheek into little cubes.

Whipping the pasta with the pork cheek, it has to look shining and slightly creamy, no dry, no wet. At this stage, switch off the fire. Add eggs and stir quickly to avoid lumps. Add some boiling water to keep it creamy, if necessary.

Other than eggs, pecorino, pork cheek, and pepper, although endorsed by some recipe books, are not strictly philological.

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Lazio wine

Wine area in Italy: exploring Lazio region

When most people think of a wine area in Italy, Tuscany comes to mind but few people realize that each Italian region has a special quality wine to offer. The first DOCG denomination in Italy has been given to wine from Lazio.

In all, therefore, in Lazio, there are 3 DOCGs and 26 DOCs (in addition to 6 IGTs). The agri-food production includes 11 PDOs and 8 PGIs.

Table of Contents

When most people think of a wine area in Italy, Tuscany comes to mind but few people realize that each Italian region has a special quality wine to offer. The first DOCG denomination in Italy has been given to wine from Lazio.

In all, therefore, in Lazio, there are 3 DOCGs and 26 DOCs (in addition to 6 IGTs). The agri-food production includes 11 PDOs and 8 PGIs.

Table of Contents

The wine area of Lazio - Italy

Lazio is the Italian region whose provincial capital is the well-known Rome appreciated and admired by tourists from all over the world mostly for its history.

Few deep-in its food & wine history and  discover that also Lazio is a renowned

Lazio wine area extension and wine grape species

Of the wine area in Italy, Lazio covers almost 28,000 hectares which gives rise to over 2 million hectoliters of wine. It is  50% hilly and the remainder is divided halfway between lowland and mountainous areas.

The vineyards are located 70% in the hills and 30% in flat areas. Thanks to the presence of volcanoes, lakes, hilly areas and reclaimed plains, Lazio has a mixed territory that gives rise to different types of wine made by exploiting in particular the potential of native vines.

The most important native black grape variety is undoubtedly the Cesanese which is the basis of excellent wines. Other black grape varieties grown in Lazio are: Montepulciano, Ciliegiolo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

For the white wines instead Malvasia, Trebbiano and Grechetto are used, the latter grown mainly on the border with Umbria.

Credit: Quattro Calici

Lazio wine production

The most important wine area of Lazio is: the Castelli Romani, south-east of Rome.

The Castelli Romani are dotted with medieval villages, villas, vineyards, woods and is by chance the area where we decided to move from Rome over 20 years ago and settle Olive Tree Hill.  Here white berried grapes such as Malvasia del Lazio and Trebbiano yellow predominate and then Bellone and other local varieties. Among the black berried ones Cesanese, Sangiovese and Montepulciano, but also Merlot, Ciliegiolo and Bombino Nero.

in the area the DOC denomination is assigned to the wines of Zagarolo, Frascati, Colonna, Montecompatri and Cori.

Towards the south, between Rome and Frosinone, in the territories of Ciociaria, Cesanese reigns, a native black grape variety that gives rise to high quality red wines often associated with Barbera, Montepulciano and Sangiovese vines.

To the east, in the province of Latina, red wines prevail. The Aprilia DOC and Circeo DOC stand out,

In the province of Viterbo, on the volcanic soils around Lake Bolsena, mainly white grapes are grown such as Trebbiano Toscano and Trebbiano Giallo, as well as Malvasia puntinata del Lazio. The most famous local wine is the East! East!! East!!!; among the red wines the Aleatico di Gradoli DOC. The other two denominations of the area are Tarquinia DOC and Cerveteri DOC (in the province of Rome).

The vineyards of the province of Rieti are located on the foothills of the Apennines. The Colli della Sabina DOC is shared with the province of Rome, and includes almost the entire right bank of the Tiber.

Lazio wine and food combination

Perfect for an aperitif with friends, Lazio wine match perfectly with the classic first courses of the Roman cuisine (aka Lazio cuisine) such as carbonara, cacio e pepe, gricia, etc.

In addition, the white wines of Lazio go perfectly with white meats, fish, vegetables and dairy products such as mozzarella and burrata.

For tastier and tastier dishes such as a pasta amatriciana, or a meat-based main courses of Roman cuisine e Lazio cuisine such as tripe, ossobuco, pancetta and peas. At the table, the Cesanese adds to the dish that pinch of spiciness and at the same time sweetness that manages to make the dish even tastier.

Cesanese is an intense and pleasant wine, important but versatile, suitable for a party evening with friends but also for that simpler everyday cuisine, to be enjoyed with the family.

The legend of EST! EST!! EST!!! wine

The story tells of a German bishop who had to point out to Emperor Henry V of Germany, on a visit to the pope, the places to stop around the capital and find good wine.

The bishop’s servant, who arrived in Montefiascone and tasted the local wine, was so enthusiastic that he wrote next to the door of a local Hostaria: “Est! Est !! Est !!!”. The bishop, having arrived in the village, shared the judgment of his cupbearer and extended his stay in Montefiascone for three days.

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