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.
This is the creamy Spaghetti carbonara you are looking for.
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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