I have always been fond of Italian food and cooking. On my recent trip to Paris, on invitation by Edouard Cointreau, chairman of the Paris cookbook fair, I met many celebrated chefs—K-C Wallberg from Sweden, Chef Wan (Malaysia), ED Chhakal (Germany) and Benedetto D´Epiro (Italy). When I heard that Benedetto alias Benny the Chef specialises in the ancient Roman style of cooking, I was anxious to learn more about it. The first lesson I learnt was Italian food is all about aromas and freshness of food. He said, “Insaporire means ‘to enhance the flavour’. One would do this with an insaporiti, a mixture consisting of olive oil or butter perhaps flavoured with onion, garlic and parsley added during or after the cooking.”
Although whenever we think of Italian food, first that come to our minds are pizzas, pastas and fresh gelatos, Italian food is not limited to these popular dishes. Nevertheless, pasta is one of my favourite dishes too. The list of its varieties is never-ending—Aglio e Olio, American Chopsuey, American Goulash, Pasta-Arrabiata, Cincinnati Chili, Fettuccine Alfredo, Fideua,
Giovetsi, Johnny Marzetti, Pizza-ghetti, Penne Ala Vodka, all-time favourites sphaghetti with meat balls, macaroni and cheese, ravioli sabounee and grand Carbonara.
Pasta alla Carbonara (commonly spaghetti or sometimes can also be fettuccine, Rigatoni) is a mid-20th century Italian pasta dish made with bacon, eggs, parmesan cheese, olive oil and black pepper. Although cream is not used in the Italian version, it’s used in the US, Japan, Russia, Australia, the UK, Spain and other countries. In some variations, peas, mushrooms and broccoli are also added. What remains common is: eggs are added in raw form to sauce which cooks or coagulates with the heat of spaghetti.
Carbonara is a complete meal in itself and forms a part of main course. A typical Roman dish, it’s said to have originated in the Appennie mountains in Abruzzo by woodcutters who made charcoal for fuel. Hence the name Carbonara, meaning charcoal burners. It’s also said to be created by Carbonari, a secret society in Italy responsible for Italy’s unification. Another hypothesis is the obvious one: given the meaning of Alla Carbonara, coal worker’s style, it takes its name from specks of black pepper which resemble coal dust.
Another story is that the food shortage after Rome’s liberation was so severe that the allied forces distributed military rations comprising powdered egg and bacon which the locals used with water to season the dirtied pasta.
When people outside Italy think of Carbonara, they usually think of pasta, often tagliatelle, smothered in a sauce made from slices of ham and mushroom in cream. The original Roman Carbonara recipe, however, is very different; it has no cream or mushrooms and is usually made not with tagliatelle but with spaghetti. This authentic Carbonara is quick and fairly easy to cook, and requires only a handful of ingredients.
The writer is a well-known restaurateur and author of many cookbooks
Roman Carbonara
Ingredients (per person):
100g spaghetti
one egg (one per person, plus maybe one extra yolk)
a handful of diced pancetta
a heaped tablespoon of grated parmesan or pecorino
(the amount of cheese, and how finely you dice the pancetta, should be adjusted according to preference)
Recipe:
First, get the spaghetti boiling in plenty of salted water. Next, fry the pancetta in a good dash of olive oil. Beat the eggs and the extra yolk together in a bowl.
When the pasta is cooked, drain it but put a bowl under the colendar to retain some of the water; you may need that later. Now return the pasta to the pan, and stir in first the pancetta with the hot oil, and then the beaten eggs. The egg will cook in the heat from the pasta, but here is where the flair comes in; you need to stir the egg into the mix so that it cooks into a cream and not hundreds of pieces of tiny omelette. Add cheese, and if the mixture is too dry, stir in a little of the cooking water from the pasta (no more than a spoonful). Serve with coarse-ground black pepper.
Variations:
You can make variations using different meats and cheeses. Two combinations are parmesan with Italian sausage (skin the sausages and crumble them into the frying pan), and gruyere with speck. Finally, if you can get it, to be truly authentic you should use not diced pancetta but guanciale.