Italian, Pasta, Classic, Cheese, Egg


Method

  1. Boil a pot of water with at least two quarts of water in it and chop the guanciale as thin as you can.
  2. In a medium sauce pan, render the guanciale, adding the smashed clove of garlic after the fat begins to render and ideally the pasta to the water at the same time. And cook the pork for an additional 4 minutes.
  3. In a medium mixing bowl, mix the cheese, eggs, and olive oil together into a thick paste. Add the pepper at this point if you choose to use it and remove the garlic clove from the pork around this time while leaving the burner on its lowest setting.
  4. Once the pasta is near al dente (around a minute before the manufacturer’s instructions, pull from the boiling water and add directly to the pork, stirring vigorously in an attempt to deglaze the pan.
  5. Add a ladle of the pasta water to your egg/cheese mixture to thin it out slightly, then add it to the pasta mixture and mix vigorously.
  6. Keep mixing on low until the sauce achieves the desired viscosity, and serve immediately.

 

Carbonara

Ingredients

1lb of spaghetti

1/3lb of guanciale (an unsweetened bacon, or American style pork jowl is acceptable)

1 ½ cups of the highest quality Parmesan or Pecorino Romano you can find and grate

2 eggs + 3 egg yolks (reserving the white for a whiskey sour or other use)

1/4-1/3 a cup of a peppery extra virgin olive oil

1 clove of garlic, crushed

Optional: ground white pepper to taste

 

Notes

  • The quality of this dish, or anything with as few techniques/ingredients as it, is in the quality of the ingredients going into it. Cheap parm, cheap pork, cheap olive oil, all of it will come through.
    • In other words, when convenient. I’m recommending you either go to your area Eataly or high end Italian market to buy the ingredients.
  • Do not try to cut calories on this. If you’re not okay with eating a heavy, fall/winter, roman pasta. This is not for you.
  • Making this recipe in a kosher or halal method is tricky but possible.
    • Having attempted to make this with beef-bacon (a violation of kosher principles anyway), I can tell you the results are worse than foregoing the meat. The result tastes like a Bacon Philly Cheesesteak was translated to pasta in the most disastrous way possible.
    • The ideal method of making this in the kosher/halal tradition is to forgo the meat and add a tablespoon of butter + 2tbsp of a lighter olive oil + 2-3tbsp of extra cheese in its place. Done right this can lead to an equally high quality dish.
  • White pepper is recommended over black as it has a less distinct flavor than black pepper.
  • This is not a dish to use “fresh” pasta on, as it tends to lead to a sauce that is either too thick or too thin in our experience.
  • There’s a temptation for non-Italians to add cream to this. Don’t.
    • Aside from annoying every Italian who ever finds out, it disrupts the fluid balance of the dish and essentially turns it into an overcomplicated bacon alfredo.

Further Reading

There are some dishes that are representative of the very best a culture has to offer. Often made with as few ingredients as possible, and with techniques that are the backbone of the culture’s cooking style. For Italy, those recipes are the Roman pastas. Carbonara, e pepe, and amatriciana standing out.

Though the specific origins of these are mostly unknown. They’re often attributed to Roman Sheppards, as the ingredients were often common in their homes and the pastas themselves are relatively filling. These are very basic pastas that rely heavily on the quality of the ingredients that go into them. Luckily, most of these ingredients are reasonably shelf stable, and can be bought at your area high end Italian merchant, or if you live in a major American city, Eataly.

On a final note. If you’ve ever thought that an Italian Red Wine, typically a Nebbiolo, was bordering on too tannic to drink. Try pairing it with this or some of the other classic roman pastas. Wine culture in European cultures tyically evolved in tandem with the local cuisine. It’s why the best pairings for local cuisines are usually the wines that were grown in the same area. 

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