Carbonara

This article is about the pasta dish. For other uses, see Carbonara (disambiguation).

Carbonara

Spaghetti alla carbonara
Alternative names	Pasta alla carbonara
Course	Primo (Italian pasta course)
Place of origin	Italy
Region or state	Lazio
Main ingredients	Pasta, guanciale (or pancetta), hard cheese (usually pecorino romano, occasionally Parmesan or Grana Padano, or a mixture), eggs, black pepper
Cookbook: Carbonara   Media: Carbonara

Carbonara (Italian: [karboˈnaːra]) is a pasta dish made with fatty cured pork, hard cheese, eggs, salt, and black pepper.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} It is typical of the Lazio region of Italy. The dish took its modern form and name in the middle of the 20th century.^[7]

The cheese is usually pecorino romano. Some variations use Parmesan, Grana Padano, or a combination of cheeses.^[6][8][9] Spaghetti is the most common pasta, but rigatoni or bucatini are also used. While guanciale, a cured pork jowl, is traditional, some variations use pancetta,^[6][5] and lardons of smoked bacon are a common substitute outside Italy.

Origin and history

As with many recipes, the origins of the dish and its name are obscure;^[10] most sources trace its origin to the region of Lazio.^[11][6][5]

The dish forms part of a family of dishes consisting of pasta with cured pork, cheese, and pepper, one of which is pasta alla gricia. It is very similar to pasta cacio e uova, a dish dressed with melted lard and a mixture of eggs and cheese, but not meat or pepper. Cacio e uova is documented as far back as 1839 and, according to researchers, anecdotal evidence indicates that some Italians born before World War II associate that name with the dish now known as "carbonara".^[8]

There are many theories for the origin of the name carbonara, which is probably more recent than the dish itself.^[8] There is no good evidence for any of them:

• Since the name is derived from carbonaro, some people believe the dish was first made as a hearty meal for Italian charcoal workers.^[6] In parts of the United States, this etymology gave rise to the term coal miner's spaghetti.
• John F. Mariani writes that some people believe it was created as a tribute to the Carbonari (lit. 'charcoal burners') secret society prominent in the early, repressed stages of Italian unification (Risorgimento) in the early 19th century.^[12]
• It seems more probable that it is an "urban dish" from Rome.^[13]

The names pasta alla carbonara and spaghetti alla carbonara are unrecorded before the Second World War; notably, it is absent from Ada Boni's 1930 La cucina romana (lit. 'Roman cuisine').^[8] The 1931 edition of the Guide of Italy of the TCI describes a pasta (strascinati) dish from Cascia and Monteleone di Spoleto, in Umbria, whose sauce contains whipped eggs, sausage, and pork fat and lean, which could be considered as a precursor of carbonara, although it does not contain any cheese.^[14]

The name carbonara first appears in print in 1950, when the Italian newspaper La Stampa described it as a Roman dish sought out by American officers after the Allied liberation of Rome in 1944.^[15]

According to one hypothesis,^[16] a young Italian Army cook named Renato Gualandi created the dish in 1944, with other Italian cooks, as part of a dinner for the U.S. Army, because the Americans "had fabulous bacon, very good cream, some cheese and powdered egg yolks".^[17]

Food writer Alan Davidson and food blogger and historian Luca Cesari have both stated that carbonara was born in Rome around 1944, just after the liberation of the city, probably because of the bacon that flowed in quantity with the U.S. Army.^[18][19] Cesari adds that the dish is mentioned in an Italian movie from 1951,^[20] while the first attested recipe is in an illustrated cookbook^[21] published in Chicago in 1952 by Patricia Bronté.^[22][16] According to Cesari, the recipe was probably brought to the United States by an American serviceman who had passed through Rome during the Italian campaign or by an Italian American who had met it in Rome;^[22] this makes carbonara a dish that closely links Italy and the United States, according to Cesari.^[22] The controversial Italian academic and professor Alberto Grandi also said that carbonara's first attested recipe is American, citing Cesari, a claim that has been criticized in Italy.^[23] According to Grandi, the dish was created by Americans living in Italy after World War II. The American soldiers initially referred to it as "spaghetti breakfast". Eggs and bacon were their common snack, and they decided to incorporate pasta into it, thus creating the dish.

In 1954, the first recipe for carbonara published in Italy appeared in La Cucina Italiana magazine, although the recipe featured pancetta, garlic, and Gruyère cheese.^[24][25] The same year, carbonara was included in Elizabeth David's Italian Food, an English-language cookbook published in Great Britain.^[26]

Carbonara's origins and recipe are hotly debated;^[24] today, many Italians consider adding cream "sacrilege", although it was once common and practiced by iconic Italian chef Gualtiero Marchesi in the 1980s.

Preparation

Spaghetti alla carbonara

The pasta is cooked in boiling water salted only moderately, due to the saltiness of the cured meat and the hard cheese. The meat is briefly fried in a pan in its own fat.^[8] A mixture of raw eggs (or yolks), grated cheese, and a liberal amount of ground black pepper is combined with the hot pasta either in the pasta pot or in a serving dish or bain-marie,^[9] but away from direct heat, to avoid curdling the egg.^[5] The fried meat is then added and the mixture is tossed, creating a rich, creamy sauce with bits of meat spread throughout.^{[6][7][8][27]} Various shapes of pasta can be used, almost always dried durum wheat pasta.^[28]

Variations

Guanciale is the most commonly used meat for the dish in Italy, but pancetta and pancetta affumicata are also used^[29][30][8] and, in English-speaking countries, bacon is often used as a substitute.^[31] The usual cheese is pecorino romano;^[6] occasionally Parmesan, Grana Padano, or a combination of hard cheeses are used.^[9][32][33] Recipes differ as to which part of the egg is used—some use the whole egg, some others only the yolk, and still others a mixture.^[34] The amount of eggs used also vary, but the intended result is a creamy sauce from mild heating.^[8]

Some preparations have more sauce and therefore use tubular pasta, such as penne, which is better suited to holding sauce.^[8][35] Cream is not used in most Italian recipes,^[36][37] with some notable exceptions from the 20th century.^{[30][29][24][8]} However, it is often employed in other countries,^[31][38] as adding cream makes the dish more stable.^[39][40] Similarly, garlic is found in some recipes, but mostly outside Italy.^[8][41] Outside Italy, variations on carbonara may include green peas, broccoli, tenderstem broccoli, leeks, onions,^[42] other vegetables or mushrooms,^[38] and may substitute a meat such as ham or coppa for the fattier guanciale or pancetta.

Pasta alla carbonara di mare

A variant is pasta alla carbonara di mare, a seafood dish widespread in Lazio, Tuscany, particularly in Viareggio, and on the Riviera Romagnola.

Halal or kosher versions

Since neither guanciale nor bacon is allowed for Muslims and Jews, these are replaced in carbonara either by using a different type of meat (such as turkey bacon, jerky or biltong) that are not made from pork, and can be halal, or with non-meat alternatives (such as zucchini or mushrooms); thus the dish can become a halal or kosher variant.^[43][44]

Sauce

A product described as carbonara sauce is sold as a ready-to-eat convenience food in grocery stores in many countries. Unlike the original preparation, which is inseparable from its dish as its creamy texture is created on the pasta itself, the ultra-processed versions of carbonara are prepared sauces to be applied onto separately cooked pasta.^[45][46] They may be thickened with cream and sometimes food starch, and often use bacon or cubed pancetta slices instead of guanciale.

See also

• Roman cuisine
• List of pasta
• List of pasta dishes

References

1. "Spaghetti alla Carbonara". Barilla. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
2. "Classic Carbonara". La Cucina Italiana. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
3. "Classic Carbonara Recipe". La Cucina Italiana. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
4. "Carbonara: the original Italian recipe". La Cucina Italiana. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
5. Carnacina, Luigi; Buonassisi, Vincenzo (1975). Roma in Cucina (in Italian). Milan: Giunti Martello. p. 91. OCLC 14086124.
6. Gosetti della Salda, Anna (1967). Le Ricette Regionali Italiane (in Italian). Milan: Solares. p. 696. ISBN 978-88-900219-0-9.
7. Alberini, Massimo; Mistretta, Giorgio (1984). Guida all'Italia gastronomica (in Italian). Touring Club Italiano. p. 286. OCLC 14164964.
8. Buccini, Antony F. (2007). "On Spaghetti alla Carbonara and related Dishes of Central and Southern Italy". In Hosking, Richard (ed.). Eggs in Cookery: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery 2006. Oxford Symposium. pp. 36–47. ISBN 978-1-903018-54-5.
9. "La ricetta della Carbonara raccontata da chi l'ha trasformata in arte". Agi (in Italian). Retrieved 19 December 2023. It is made with egg, pecorino romano, Grana Padano, guanciale, strictly long pasta.
10. Anconitano, Veruska (8 May 2020). "Authentic Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe from Rome". The Foodellers.
11. Segan, Francine (5 April 2022). "Carbonara: Origins and Anecdotes of the Beloved Italian Pasta Dish". La Cucina Italiana.
12. Mariani, John F.; Galina, Mariani (2000). The Italian-American Cookbook: A Feast of Food From a Great American Cooking Tradition. Harvard Common. pp. 140–41. ISBN 978-1-55832-166-3.
13. "Myths" in Gillian Riley, The Oxford Companion to Italian Food, 2007, ISBN 0-19-860617-6, p. 342.
14. Luca Cesari; Jacopo Fontaneto (6 April 2023). "Carbonara day: altro che americana, la ricetta è nata in Umbria". La Stampa (in Italian). Retrieved 6 April 2023.
15. "Il papa ha "passato ponte"". archiviolastampa.it (in Italian). La Stampa. 26 July 1950. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
16. Dario Bressanini (3 December 2012). "L'origine della Carbonara. Il commissario Rebaudengo indaga" (in Italian). Retrieved 5 May 2023.
17. "Le origini della carbonara. L'invenzione di Gualandi avvenne a Roma: la scoperta di Igles Corelli" (in Italian). Retrieved 2 October 2020.
18. Luca Cesari (12 March 2018). "La storia della carbonara – Capitolo 1. I precedenti" (in Italian). Retrieved 5 May 2023.
19. Davidson, Alan (1999). Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford UP. p. 740. ISBN 0-19-211579-0.
20. Video on YouTube
21. Patricia Bronté (1952). Vittles and Vice: An Extraordinary Guide to What's Cooking on Chicago's Near North Side. Chicago: H. Regnery Company. p. 34.
22. Luca Cesari (12 March 2018). "La storia della carbonara – Capitolo 2. Gli esordi 1951-1960" (in Italian). Retrieved 5 May 2023.
23. Giuffrida, Angela (27 March 2023). "Italian academic cooks up controversy with claim carbonara is US dish". The Guardian.
24. Bressanin, Anna (31 March 2023). "The iconic pasta causing an Italian-American dispute". BBC.
25. "Carbonara: How We Made It in the 1950s". La Cucina Italiana. Condé Nast. 5 April 2022. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
26. David, Elizabeth (1954). Italian Food. Great Britain: Macdonald.
27. Ricettario Nazionale delle Cucine Regionali Italiane. Accademia Italiana della Cucina.
28. Gustiblog (27 March 2020). "On Serious Eats: a Pasta Rant". Gustiamo. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
29. Carnacina, Luigi; Veronelli, Luigi (1977). "Vol. 2, Italia Centrale". La cucina Rustica Regionale. Rizzoli. OCLC 797623404. republication of La Buona Vera Cucina Italiana, 1966.
30. Buonassisi, Vincenzo (1985). Il Nuovo Codice della Pasta. Rizzoli.
31. Herbst, Sharon Tyler; Herbst, Ron (2007). "alla Carbonara". The New Food Lover's Companion (Fourth ed.). Barron's Educational Series. ISBN 978-0-7641-3577-4.
32. Contaldo, Gennaro (2015). Jamie's Food Tube: The Pasta Book. Penguin UK.
33. Antonio, Carluccio (2011). 100 Pasta Recipes (My Kitchen Table). BBC Books.
34. "Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe". ItalianPastaRecipes.it. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
35. Perry, Neil; Carter, Earl; Fairlie-Cuninghame, Sue (2006). The Food I Love: Beautiful, Simple Food to Cook at Home. Simon and Schuster. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-7432-9245-0.
36. "Spaghetti alla Carbonara (all'uso di Roma)". Archived from the original on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
37. Marchesi, Gualtiero (2015). La cucina italiana. Il grande ricettario. De Agostini. ISBN 978-88-511-2733-6.
38. Labensky, Sarah R.; House, Alan M. (2003). On Cooking, Third Edition: Techniques from expert chefs. Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 0-13-045241-6.
39. "Why You Shouldn't Be Adding Cream To Your Carbonara".
40. Louis Thomas. "Dear Dairy: Who Put Cream in Carbonara?".
41. Oliver, Jamie (2016). "Gennaro's classic spaghetti carbonara".
42. Beltramme, Ilaria. Magna Roma - 110 ricette per cucinare a casa i piatti della tradizione romana, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milano, 2011, p. 73. ISBN 978-88-04-60723-6.
43. Benedetta Jasmine Guetta (2022). Cooking alla Giudia: A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy. Artisan. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-57965-980-6.
44. Baz, Molly (22 March 2019). "Mushroom Carbonara". Bon Appétit. Condé Nast. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
45. Zanini De Vita, Oretta; Fant, Maureen B., eds. (2013). Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian Way. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-393-08243-2. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
46. "Cooking Sauce Carbonara, 15 oz. Jar (Directions For Me)". Archived from the original on 25 December 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2019.

Bibliography

• Buccini, Anthony F. (2007). "On Spaghetti alla Carbonara and Related Dishes of Central and Southern Italy". In Hosking, Richard (ed.). Eggs in Cookery: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery 2006. Oxford Symposium. pp. 36–47. ISBN 978-1-903018-54-5.
• Zanini De Vita, Oretta; Fant, Maureen B. (2013). Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian Way. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-08243-2.

External links

• Spaghetti alla Carbonara