Spaghetti Carbonara – Chef in Italy shares Recipe

A visit to Locale Firenze in Florence where head chef Simone Caponnetto shows how to make Spaghetti Carbonara
Michelin: Selected
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Instagram Restaurant: @localefirenze
Instagram Chef: @simone_caponnetto_

Hello guys, it’s Simone Caponnetto from 
Locale Firenze. We are here in Florence. Today we’re going to make a neverending 
classic recipe. Very Italian. We make pasta with Carbonara. So let’s go. Let’s 
get started. All right. Let me put gloves on. Let me present first of all the pasta 
we’re going to use. This one is from Tuscany. It’s about like 45 minutes from 
from Florence. It’s a very very special friend that produced this. So I really like 
it. Long time cooking. Very old grain that nobody uses anymore. So I recommend it. 
Okay, let’s start with the Guanciale. This one it’s a pork cheek from Tuscany. Amazing 
piece. All right, let’s start with one piece. Beautiful. As you can see, fatty. Beautiful 
piece. Here we’re going to take out this part. And this one… we never throw away anything. This 
part we can use for for stocks, for infusing. We can also use to make pasta and then you can 
take it out after all. All right. So let’s start. All right. Now I’m going to slice it like that. These stripes Perfect. All right. From now we go 
straight into the pan. Non-stick pan. No fat, extra fat needed. So we 
start to sweat slowly the Guanciale. Yes. We can start to cook our pasta. Beautiful. All right. Salt the water. Not too much because Pecorino Romano 
is going to be quite salty. Let’s dissolve the salt. And let’s get in. This one it’s 14 minutes cooking. So we need to start to cook. This one 
start to sweat as you can hear. All right. Okay. The pasta is cooking. The Guanciale is sweating. The fat starts to get translucent. A good sign. A good 
quality one Guanciale. Okay, let’s keep going here. So for my recipe I will use 70% of Pecorino Romano 
which is this and 30% of Parmesan. You might have different ideas. There’s people that use just Pecorino, 
people use just parmesan, people use cream, people use garlic, whatever. You need to make your 
own recipe. I know it’s a classic. It should be in one way but as a chef everyone choose 
his own way. There’s no wrong or worse. It’s just you need to choose your way. Okay, let’s 
start with the pecorino. I will take one piece out. That should be enough. And we grate. 
Okay. And then we go with the parmesan. Okay. Right. semi- dried pecorino romano, quite salty, 
quite intense in flavor that’s why I like to cut a little bit with some parmesan 
which give this richness in the flavor I recommend always use a microplane so it 
will help to melt while when you’re going to mix it with the pasta. Okay, this one put it here. 
This one, let’s put it here. Let’s have a look. Nice. Going to make it nice 
and crispy. Pasta’s cooking. Perfect. Okay, now, a piece of parmesan. Beautiful. Okay, let’s move these. And here we have our two cheeses. Perfect. Let’s go in a bowl. Now… Okay, I switch it off. I will strain the fat here. This fat we’re not throwing. It 
will help to make the emulsion. So, we will save the fat. Probably not all of it, but All right, let’s go with the egg. We’re 
going to separate the egg white from the egg yolk. We’re going to use just egg yolk. 
Also here, different ideas. There’s people they use two egg yolks, one whole egg. 
It depends. I only use egg yolk. So, egg white we use in pastry. We have a dessert now 
with a meringue. So, We going to use everything. All right. One, Okay. Let’s do four. Let’s stop with four. 
We’re not going to make too much. Is this for one person? Yes. Just for you. Okay. 
So, we saved the egg white for later. All right. Now, nice and crispy. Fantastic. The pasta is going. Beautiful. All right. Now, next step. We have 
pork fat, pecorino, and parmesan, egg yolk. We’re going to start 
whisking. Let me take a whisk. Okay. So, egg yolk, cheese inside. All right. As you can see now, it’s too tough. 
It’s too thick. So, let’s add our pork fat. After we will add some water from the cooking 
of the pasta and obviously black pepper. Okay, don’t use the grated already. Always buy this. 
Buy black pepper in grain and do it. A la minute. All right, that’s perfect. Okay… let’s check the pasta. A couple more minutes. Okay, this one we keep for garnish. Okay. All right. So, I took out 2/3 of the 
guanciale. We just keep it for garnish. So, we want it nice and crispy. Pasta is ready. 
So, I still have some and a little bit of fat. We will finish the cooking with 
a little bit of liquid of the pasta. Okay. I don’t want all of it. Too much. Okay. So, pasta is in. Fire on. Okay. We use a little bit more liquid and we finish the cooking. So the pasta starts to absorb either the liquid and the 
the fat that we have in the pan. All the starch of the pasta starts to get out. So, this one will make it nice and creamy. 
Okay. Fire off. And we go with our egg. Here. Here. All right, our egg mixture in. So, as simple as it is this recipe, it’s quite 
technical and difficult actually to do not make a disaster. So, to make a frittata is a second 
here. So, make sure fire is off. Make sure the egg is not raw but is not overcooked. 
Otherwise you’re going to make a scrambled egg here. So play with the water a little bit, 
play with the temperature. You want a creamy texture, so you have to play a little bit and use your 
touch. Let’s see this. Okay, egg start to get to the temperature. 
You can see we have a nicely creamy sauce. Not no not dripping. So the pasta 
has absorbed all the egg. We’re ready. All right, we’re ready to go in a plate. Very important. Carbonara, you need 
to eat it straight away. All right, let’s go in the pan. Perfect. Let’s do a nice portion. Okay, let’s take some cream. All right, nice and creamy sauce. Fantastic. Now, let’s finish it 
with our crispy guanciale. Crispy guanciale on top. And let’s not forget black pepper again. And voila. Carbonara is ready. Simple, easy, technical. Let’s make sure you don’t make 
scrambled egg. Okay. Some white wine. And guys, don’t forget, important to 
eat it as soon as it cooked. al dente… Instant happiness. Yeah. With cabonara.