PASTA CARBONARA

All traditional dishes have a history, but among the most curious and debated is certainly that relating to pasta carbonara. What is its origin? Was it really born in Rome?

There is no original recipe, but a recipe that has undergone transformations over time up to the Roman "DOP" one and to which there is no compromise. Let's say straight away that there are no ancestors of carbonara that go beyond the first decades of the 20th century. The story of humble and industrious shepherds (or charcoal burners) who since the dawn of time have filled their mess with spaghetti seasoned with eggs, bacon and pecorino is as fascinating as it is ahistorical. This is stated by Guido Mori, professor at the University of Italian Cuisine in Florence. The first carbonara recipe in Italy was published in 1954 in a specialized magazine (La Cucina Italiana).  Among the ingredients: garlic, bacon, Gruyere, eggs and pepper, completely different from the one we know. In reality, starting from historical recipe books, one can find the first example of association between egg and pasta in "Il cuoco galante" by the Neapolitan Vincenzo Corrado, printed in 1773, followed by the "Theoretical-practical cuisine" of his fellow countryman Ippolito Cavalcanti, but they were preparations years away from the current concept of carbonara. Taking a decisive step forward was instead Francesco Palma, another Neapolitan, who described Maccheroni with cheese and eggs in "The Prince of Cooks" in 1881, in which he combines cheese, eggs and lard in a plate of macaroni. The use of lard or bacon as a seasoning for pasta, however, was recorded in recipe books only much later.

A curiosity: the first time we hear about carbonara is in an italian movie (bella cameriera offresi) in 1951, while the first carbonara recipe ever published was in 1952 in the United States in a restaurant guide of a district of Chicago entitled “An extraordinary guide to what's cooking on Chicago's Near North Side” by Patricia Bronté. In 1955, carbonara entered a real recipe book for the first time, "The Lady in the Kitchen" by Felix Dessì in a version more similar to today's, with the presence of eggs, pepper, parmesan (or pecorino) and bacon. But the definitive consecration as a national recipe occurred with the publication in Luigi Carnacina's cookbook "La grande cucina" in 1960. For the first time, pork cheek was introduced, replacing bacon, but cream was also introduced, which would often be present. in the recipe until the end of the 80's even with non-negligible quantities (as in Gualtiero Marchesi's 1989 version which recommends a quarter of a liter on 400 g of spaghetti!)

In its first forty years of life, in addition to cream, there have been other contaminations by different chefs with other ingredients that find their own space in the recipe, such as wine, garlic, onion, parsley, bell pepper, pepper and chili pepper, demonstrating extreme variability of composition. In the versions of carbonara from the 90's, all these ingredients will be eliminated, allowing the slow but constant affirmation of the three classic ingredients that everyone knows today: egg (with a clear prevalence of the yolk), pecorino cheese and jowl with the addition of more or less abundant of pepper. The origin of the dish as we know today, or almost, apart from the previous historical excursus, I knew it dates back to World War II, when the allies entered Rome (1944). But here too there are different versions just to increase the "mythology" of the dish. It is certainly a combination of the military rations of the US allies and the Italian culinary inventiveness that combined the American taste, eggs and bacon, with pasta seasoned with cheese and pepper.

One version tells of a certain Renato Gualandi, a young chef of Bolognese origin, who was hired on 22 September 1944 to prepare a lunch on the occasion of the meeting between the English 8th Army and the American 5th Army in the newly liberated Riccione. Making a virtue of necessity, he unknowingly created a dish destined to become famous throughout the world: “Americans had fantastic bacon, delicious cream, cheese and egg yolk powder. I put everything together and served this pasta to the generals and officers for dinner. At the last moment I decided to add some black pepper which released an excellent flavour." Later, he said that he became a cook for the Allied troops in Rome from September 1944 to April 1945 and this period was enough to spread the fame of carbonara in the capital. Obviously the story of the carbonara invented in Riccione in 1944 by a Bolognese chef using American army rations has generated several doubts, above all because in his biography - recently written - he actually doesn't talk about all this at all.
Another version says that American soldiers, during the Second World War, tasted Abruzzo's "cacio e ova" pasta prepared by carbonai (carbonari in Roman dialect) in the L'Aquila area and the name "carbonara" could also be born from here. From there, adding the bacon came almost naturally, also due to the area in which the recipe was made and, perhaps, also the smoked bacon, the famous bacon, imported directly from the United States.

But there are also those who attribute the birth of carbonara to Naples. The period is always the same: we are in 1944. The American troops loved the "street food" that they served on the stalls in Naples, what today we will call "street food". They loved the typical wallet pizza and spaghetti cooked quickly and seasoned with cheese and pepper. It seems that one day, an American soldier, finding that plate of spaghetti insignificant, added the so-called "K ration", consisting of powdered eggs, bacon and liquid cream. A recipe that today makes you shudder, but which could just be the ancestor of our beloved ancestor. From that unbalanced and very American recipe, the Neapolitans worked on the ingredients and carbonara was born. Soon the recipe spread to Rome which made it its own, adopted it in all respects making it "a myth", so much so that it celebrated "carbonara day", established in 2015, on 6 April each year.
I like to think that it was actually a Roman innkeeper, I don't know who, that to celebrate the entry of the allies into Rome, combined the ingredients supplied by the Yankees (bacon) with what he had at his disposal in a plate of pasta he was already cooking (cheese and pepper) with the addition of eggs (and perhaps a little condensed milk cream) always based on American input. An energetic, caloric and protein dish suitable for that period in which hunger reigned everywhere and which was so popular that it was exported to the USA and this also explains why the first recipe was published in Chicago.

The current versions both in Italy and abroad are numerous, with many variations. A survey commissioned by the pasta makers of the Italian Food Union analyzed those present on social media and on the web in the month of March: over 4,600 contents tracked with the hashtag #carbonara, in more than 20 different languages, for a total of over 4, 5 million views. The result? Throughout the world, in 36% of cases these are recipes that it is almost risky to call Carbonara, 61% are faithful to the recipe as we know it today, or introduce minimal variations on the theme (4%). In Italy 7 out of 10 Italians know the necessary ingredients, but they don't hesitate to venture out into more or less reckless reinterpretations.
In the 90s, 7 "strict" rules were drawn up that must be followed to have a "DOP" carbonara, in a workmanlike manner:

1. Incorrectly cooked pasta: it must be al dente, never overcooked

2. Replace the jowl with bacon. Strips of raw or cooked ham, speck, lard or similar should also be banned. Respectable ingredients, of course, but which have nothing to do with carbonara

3. Garlic and onion? Both are not to be used, let's clarify that once and for all

4. Adding cream: shivering is the least. Beware of putting cream in carbonara and if you do, don't call it carbonara. The only cream that seasons carbonara is the one created by combining egg yolks and pecorino romano.

5. Replace the pecorino with other cheeses: pecorino romano is the great protagonist in carbonara, someone can choose to tone it down - for their own taste - with parmesan or parmesan only, but beware of replacing it with other undefined cheeses.
 
6. Scrambled egg in pasta: have you ever seen the carbonara ones with broken-up omelette inside instead of the tasty cream? Creaming doesn't go wrong. The mix of egg yolks and pecorino cheese should be added only after the pasta has been drained and removed from the heat

7. Use of chili pepper or various spices: only a grinding of pepper goes on the carbonara. The use of any other spice is prohibited.

Personally, on point 2, I would be more flexible, also considering the fact that bacon was originally the ingredient, but I would also be tolerant with speck, the tested version, which turns out to be even tastier and less fatty. However, I find it difficult to use the wording "carbonara" of asparagus, seafood, etc.... They are other dishes, but don't call them "carbonara" (just as Milanese risotto is not "Milanese" just because it contains saffron, but it is as it involves precise preparation and ingredients, with a certain tolerance limited to some types of meat).

However, it is one of the tastiest dishes with few ingredients, but which must be of high quality and mixed with skill and at the right time. It seems like an easy dish, but it's not, and it's easy to make a mistake.

Bon appetit...with taste!