I have decided to take a step of bravery and post an Italian recipe. Since finding out my 14th Great Grandfather was from Rome via ancestry.com, I’ve figured that I’m basically Italian anyway.
The Italian cuisine is quite misunderstood in the English-speaking world and the proof of that is all over the internet in comments by angry Italians protecting their cuisine and culture by calling out our inauthentic recipes. I do understand that if we are going to take from their cuisine, we should at least remain true to what a dish is and to the ingredients. If we want to make it our own, we should simple call it something else. Like faux-bonanara or cream-bonara – anything you like.
With this in mind, I hope this recipe is as true as possible to a traditional Roman carbonara, a creamy pasta dish containing the following; guanciale (pancetta can be used as substitute if now available), eggs, pecorino, parmesan, pepper and white wine. The method to make it can vary but, traditionally, the ingredients do not.
Italian food as a rule is very simple which is one of the reasons I love it so much. It is all about making something beautiful by marrying together just a few really great ingredients. That is exactly what this recipe does.
The ingredients:
- 500g pasta (I like to use rigatoni but anything that holds the sauce, spaghetti is most common)
- 200g pancetta (if you can get guanciale even better)
- 4 Eggs (1 per portion – we eat double portions in this house)
- 40g pecorino
- 3a0g parmesan (extra for topping)
- pepper
- white wine
Method:
- Boil the water for the pasta
- In a large pan fry the pancetta and add splash of white wine (cook until crispy then set aside to cool)
- Meanwhile begin to cook the pasta in salted water
- Mix eggs into pancetta
- When pasta is al dente, add to the egg mix and toss pasta until fully combined and the emulsified (cook on very low heat and keep the pasta moving – you do not want to end up with scrambled eggs!)
- The sauce should be smooth and creamy and should cling to the pasta
- Add the cheeses and some cracked black pepper and toss to combine
- Serve with some parmesan on top and enjoy!
BONNIE JOUR 