Before going through the recipe for carbonara, the one we know today, I would like to tell you the history of the real carbonara, which is not so long because it is a very recent recipe.
Many gastronomic researchers strived to go from the Abruzzo’s hills and through the alleys of Naples. Eventually finding recipes that look like carbonara, such as the famous “Macaroni with cheese and egg” from Abruzzo but in the end they gave in to the evidence that the simplest solution is always the right one.
The carbonara recipe was born in 1944 at the Rimini harbor, exactly on two World War II American ships, where Gualandi, a chef from Bologna, had to cook for a bunch of soldiers. He only had American smoked bacon, pasta and the ingredients that American soldiers used to have breakfast: eggs to scramble, cream and cheese.
The good chef added pepper and the result was the first carbonara to be documented.
Over the years the name came, thanks to Roman restaurants and various recipe versions changed. From the ’70s to the ’80s, carbonara was made with bacon, thin spaghetti, Parmesan cheese and scrambled egg. Then, during the ‘90s, cream was added and finally the current one, which certainly and in my opinion, is the best and hopefully will not be changed again.
Ingredients for 2 people:
1.7 oz – 50 gr salt-cured pork jowl
2 oz – 60/80 gr Romano cheese
2 yolks
2 teaspoons of black pepper
7 oz – 200 gr Spaghetti
(as you want/prefer)
How to prepare:
In a comfy pan put a teaspoon of black pepper, lightly crushed with a meat tenderizer or muddler, and heat it. Remove the pepper and set it aside in a glass. Then, in the same pan, add 50 gr of salt-cured pork jowl cut into strips and cook for 5 minutes until browned in its own fat.
Cook the spaghetti in a pot of boiling water with a little bit of salt.
Meanwhile, grate 60-80 g of Romano cheese and mix it with 2 egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of the pasta water.
After cooking the pasta al dente, mix it in a pan with the pepper and salt-cured pork jowl.
Stir well on the stove to allow the flavors to blend.
Take it off the heat.
Add the cheese and egg yolks to the mixture and stir until melted.
Return the pan to the stove over medium heat, stirring frequently until the sauce thickens like a cream.
If it is too wet, let it dry a little; if it is too dry, add a little water.
Make a nice, generous dish with the pork jowl on top, a final sprinkling of cheese and a little bit more fresh pepper.
This is the story and the recipe of a simple dish, born by chance, and the envy of the world.
Thinly tiny and a fabulous cream. You give a wreck to it. Making carbonara has become a nightmare. Because it, my friends, has become like a ceremony. Because if you don’t do it in a certain way that you miss a one little comma, you are ruined. Instead not have well documented.
And I mean, the history is not just like this. However, now I will show you how to make a carbonara made well with modern standards. Meanwhile, I also tell you the history of carbonara, because it is also very interesting.
It is not so old as a recipe and it is not even so traditional. In fact, if we want to be honest, it is not even roman. But let’s do things right, clear and precise. Meanwhile, I grated about 60 grams of fresh Romano cheese, black pepper, a teaspoon. It’s enough for two people.
It’s a matter of taste. You give a wreck to it. Here already this thing of toasting pepper is a little extreme. Not everybody does it and it is not necessary. In the meantime, it warms up a little bit the pepper. And taking scent,
I cut into strips the salt cured pork jowl, which has on top some pepper. Maybe you give it a little scratch to pull off what has been exposed to the air, the dust. You never know. If you inquire about the books, though, not the hoaxes of YouTube, Facebook, etc.
That write whatever they want on the books. Here I have pretty famous books. The artuse the Pellegrini. It’s technical cooking of the country, of the touring club. I mean, serious books. In these you will find the recipe of carbonara. The most distant memory of carbonara are two hypotheses. Name neapolitan and an abrazizi.
The neapolitan one from 1881. They have found the first traces. It speaks about macaroni cacciova, but it is improbable. The abrazizi recipe, on the other hand, foresees that the carbonari brought with them to eat this pasta like cachiova. However, with the addition of Gruyere even and garlic also, this is rather improbable.
The time to cut the pork chow. The pepper will not be toasted, but simply warmed. It puts out all its fragrance. You can leave it in or take it out. But if you take it out, it is better. The pork gel. You can cut it into cubes or strips.
The important thing is that it is not too small or too big, because it should not be boiled or too fried. And you do not need to put butter or oil here. There is already too much fat. The pork chow should cook over medium heat for a few minutes.
It should not burn, it should not fry. Don’t worry, it should melt and brown slightly. In the meantime, I put two egg. Yolks in the romano cheese. Some people also put the whole egg. Do what you want, but I try to follow the recipe, the real one.
In fact, if we go to both. Our tuc and pellegrini, carbonara just doesn’t exist. It was a recipe that until 30, 40 years ago. 50 years ago didn’t exist. Carbonara 30 years ago. We’re talking about the regional book of italian cuisine from the touring club. And it’s not written by Donald Duck.
Spaghetti la carbonara, page 373. Latio region spaghetti. 80 grams of pork. Jowl or bacon? Bacon. One clove of garlic. Here. You are already fainting. I know, but it was made just like that. Guys, today’s carbonara did not exist. Two eggs, 70 grams of cheese, parmesan. Or Romano, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper.
Yeah. You know, we are talking about the late 80s, early ninety s. In truth. The carbonara arrived in 1944, according to stories documented, scientific and proven in 44. With the Americans who brought bacon, such as smoked bacon and the army during the war in the mestin. But Gabriele, you’re talking about nonsense.
No, my friends. Go look. Gualtiero Marquezi’s recipes. Listen to me. I’m saying Gualtiero Marquezi. You know, I’m not saying cannabachiolo or crackle. Without taking anything away from Masterchef. Gualtiero marquezi put cream in carbonara. We’re talking about a recipe book from 1981, so not even prehistory.
The pork jowl, once lightly browned, a bit crispy, just a little. You leave it in the pan, and the other, you take it out. But if you want to leave it in all, that’s fine too. It’s more an esthetic matter. The fat, if it’s too much, but it has to be too much.
A little bit. You take it out. But not the dark part, just the transparent part. A spoonful. I take it out, that’s too much. I add the pepper from before, because if I left it in to fry, it would burn and wait for the spaghetti. The story, the most credited version,
The truest, let’s say, is very recent, 1944, when two american ships had been docked at the same time in Remini, where a cook who was called. Wait, I have marked it. Gualandi. A cook from Bologna, by the way. Took the bacon provided by the american. Troops with a kind of breakfast table.
That they still serve now in the restaurant in the american dining hall that is made with cooked eggs, scrambled, with also a bit of cream inside. He had these ingredients. He had to make food for the army. He put everything together, he put pasta in it, and he created this kind of carbonara.
The carbonara was born there. The name then was given to it later because it wasn’t called carbonara. I don’t even know what it was called. They gave it to him later in time, because we Italians are very good at inventing names.
It came out this trends, and I still added 20 grams of Romano because I had put a little bit just before. Keep in mind, about 80 grams for two people. And I mix it well with the two egg yolks. I create a nice mixture with the egg yolks and Romano cheese.
Over the years, this carbonara that was born a little by chance, in the end, it was made dry. I remember that in the years, in. The 80s, squared spaghetti specials. In the mistake in the 80s, carbonara was made with very dry, with the bacon, finely cut, the wide and yolk.
Egg together, pepper mixed in the pan, but it had to be dry. And it was also made with macaroni or with mesamanica, without cream, without sauces, or without any other liquid, without anything, dry, served. If you brought it to them with. A little sauce, they would send it back.
Because I worked in restaurants, abundant boiling water. You, I recommend just a little salt because there is pork jowl and there is Romano cheese that are very tasty. So stay a little back of salt with the water. A fairly thick spaghetti and nice rough, extruding quality, even.
This follows the trends, because in the 80s, they used fine, fine, fine spaghetti. Then it was the period of penne or mesamanica, and now of thick spaghetti. I put two drops of water, two tablespoons of water in the cream here to make it more liquid. Once at this stage, they used the cream.
Gabrielle, but why do you say all this sermon today about the history of carbonara? Because it’s one of those recipes that just as you make it, you make it wrong. Everyone says there’s no cream. I agree with cream. I don’t like it either. But there’s no bacon, guys.
It’s the history of carbonara. This is it. And the historical periods show that carbonara, like so many other recipes, follow trends, follow trends. In ten years, carbonara, maybe it will be made. What? No, just with the white of the egg. I don’t know. They’re trends.
You don’t have to get angry about these things. But if you think in 20 years from now come out a sort of jerk. Chef ate one of modern’s atomic molecular and says carbonara is made only with spaghetti. The white of the egg,
Parsley and plenty of sour cream from the taral cooking al dente. Draining it directly. A little wet, but not soupy and not drowned. Let’s get seasoning well to taste freshly ground pepper. Just a little, because there was already a lot of it. Can you hear the noise?
This is the noise of the flavor. They are sticking. Now it is important to take it off the stove. Two tablespoons of water to soften even three. Depends how big the spoon is. If you use the ladle, there will be enough one. And add our egg and cheese mixture always off the stove.
And before returning to the stove, dissolve the mixture well with water so that it does not make you lumps the omelet effect. Otherwise you make the mess nice blended. Look. How does it struggles to turn? It means that it still needs a drop of water.
Now that it is soft, you have to cook it for a minute. Because the egg, in short, it has to cook stirring continuously. Within a few seconds you will create a fabulous cream, a great smell. And we put them in our dish. In the pan must remain this little stuff here, you see.
Then it will be put a little bit over the spaghetti. Do you remember the browned pork jowl from before? On top, without mercy, a little bit of pepper. And last a sprinkling of romano. Tasting today is not like the bomb. Today the taste is really a tyrannosaurus.
I left over just a little bit of romano cheese. What do you do? Do you leave it alone? Little bit of pepper, which is fine with me. But it’s not that today I wanted to be a professor of carbon neurology. Simply, the moral is what?
The moral is that you do as you want. Everyone at home does things as they prefer. And I’m not saying that you have. To put cream in it, for God’s sake. But if you have bacon instead of pork jowl, use bacon. If you want to put white, put white.
If you want to put Parmesan, put Parmesan. But you know, guys. Good, very good. I cry. I really cry. But you have to be honest. You have to say that this recipe that is now used in this way, Rome way, with Romano pork jowl, et cetera, it’s certainly much better than the old
Recipes because it is less dry and creamier and more tasty. It is very good. You have to be honest and say that. Who knows what the future holds? I don’t know. Meanwhile, I think about now.