Carbonara with cream? Run away !
Once again, I was looking at an Italian restaurant’s menu for Carbonara. Once again, it was made with onions and cream.
Personally for many years now I have come to judge the standard of an Italian restaurant by its Carboanara. One of the simplest dishes to make, one of the most abused ones.
If you are about to enter an Italian restaurant, check if they have Carbonara on the menu. If they do, it should have no more than 3 main ingredients. Anything else is cutting corners and if they do it with their Carbonara, they are likely to be doing it with other things as well, maybe with their food hygiene, or maybe with the quality of the ingredients they source.
My guess is they assume customers don't know one dish from another. To me, that is having little respect for you as a customer:
First of all, a bit of history
Carbonara was born in Rome, probably in 1944, around Vicolo della Scrofa, in some trattoria with a combination of ingredients from the US-American forces, local produce and a bit of fantasy of a local chef:
eggs
bacon (later guanciale, a type of unsmoked bacon made locally from the pig's cheek and neck, came to be used. Obviously -preferrably unsmoked- bacon is fine for Carbonara's preparation for both historical and practical reasons, as guanciale is not always easy to find out of Italy)
cheese.
Nowadays, Carbonara is made with these basic ingredients:
Guanciale – as described above. The use of bacon is acceptable. Cut in stripes as in picture or buy
pre-cut lardons.
Pecorino Romano – nowadays, a well known cheese – If you can’t find it, Parmigiano or Grana are still acceptable variations, even though flavors will be different.
Egg yolk. Eggs need to be super fresh, as they are being used raw; as you add them to the hot spaghetti, they probably partially - or fully - cook. This latter hypothetical event is no excuse, though, for using eggs that have been standing since the previous holidays...:-) Ideally walking egg/free-range.
Pepper and salt
That’s it. The creaminess of Carbonara is due to the right balance between guanciale, cheese, some of the pasta's cooking water and yolk. Carbonara should be like a romantic symphony, with no instrument being overbearing. Let's move on to its preparation:
( Quick converter 30 grams=1 Oz; 1.25 cm=1/2 inch )
Here is a speedy recipe for you to make Carbonara at home, with quantities per person:
approx. 100 gr. spaghetti (use top quality: 100% durum wheat or egg and durum wheat or of course, better even, make your own)
1 to 1 1/2 egg yolks per person (some people use the whole egg. Try the variation you prefer)
approx. 60 gr. Pecorino Romano (or as discussed Parmigiano or Grana)
approx. 40 gr. Guanciale or (unsmoked) Bacon, cut in 1 cm pieces and about 1/2 cm wide
Pepper and a bit of salt
Bring some water to the boil for the pasta. When boiling, add the pasta, let it come back to a very gentle boil and keep going till it's "al dente" (slight crunchy resistance when chewed)
In the meanwhile, heat a frying pan to medium heat. Add guanciale/bacon and keep an eye on it: when the fatty parts start turning glazy, you have it to perfection. Probably between 5 and 8 minutes.
Grate your cheese and separate the yolk from the white. Keep white for other uses, such as big omelettes and patisserie.
By now, pasta is probably ready. Drain, making sure you keep a couple of spoons of the cooking water. Basically, don't drain the pasta too thoroughly, leave some liquid.
Put it in the frying pan with the lardons and stir
Add yolk(s) and stir pasta vigorously, to prevent them from becoming scrambled eggs and to make sure they spread uniformly and create the rich creaminess Carbonara is famous for
Add cheese while stirring to prevent the cheese from becoming one big, solid lump
add pepper. I personally add quite a bit of it as I like the hotness of pepper. Entirely up to you. Normally, you need to create such a situation that you can taste it yet that it does not become overwhelming.
A bit of salt perhaps.
Let it all sit for some 30 seconds so that all flavors can mix nicely and then serve
Buon Appetito
