Pasta alla Carbonara

Reiko Okazaki
Mar 30, 2023
3 min read

Outside its birthplace of Rome, the moniker "Carbonara" sometimes refers to a dish with cream, bacon, parsley and garlic. I have even seen a dairy ad touting yogurt as a low-fat alternative. Although old-school Carbonara doesn’t contain any of the above ingredients, it is in fact a quick dish to pull together. We do have a few tricks up our sleeves, in order to avoid any scrambled eggs.

Nuanced articles have analysed the relationship between dogmas around so-called 'classical' Italian dishes and the nation-state, aka an imagined community (Benedict Anderson, 1983), which is essentially a social construct. It may well be true that the truly traditional cuisine are the hyper-local, obscure delicacies whose survival hinges upon the efforts of passionate individuals, as opposed to post-war inventions like Pasta alla Carbonara.

Yet, following the edict of “Carbonara is not an opinion”, I will not offer any variations on this one. One of my favourite pages on social media is “Italians Mad About Food”, where contributors post culinary atrocities found worldwide such as pasta using sour cream, jam etc, and Italians respond with earnest dismay and rage. A commentator once wrote under a post regarding Carbonara, “In my opinion…”, to which someone angrily responded with “Carbonara is not an opinion”, instantly spawning countless memes. So there it is–Carbonara belongs in the realm of religion/ science, whichever you subscribe to.

Ingredients

Serves 2

200 g pasta

80 g guanciale/ pancetta/ unsmoked slab bacon (weight after hard skin removed), roughly cut into 5 mm to 1 cm-wide strips

1 large egg

3 egg yolks

90 g finely grated Pecorino (and/or Parmigiano) cheese

10 g fine sea salt (for cooking the pasta)

1 g freshly ground black pepper

Method

Bring a large pot with 2 litres of water to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Add 10 grams of salt as it reaches the boil. Add the pasta, return to the boil and cook the pasta a minute or two under the packet instructions, or until just before al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, dry-fry the guanciale over medium heat in a large frying pan until it gets golden crisp and the fat has run freely. Set aside several pieces on a dry mesh sieve.
Mix the whole egg and yolks in a medium sized bowl with 80 grams of the cheese and most of the black pepper.
Pour half of the warm pork fat from the pan into the egg mixture in the bowl, and stir vigorously until smooth.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain and transfer them to the guanciale pan, reserving some cooking water. Toss rapidly over low heat to coat the pasta with the fat. Make a concave bowl or nest shape with the pasta.
Take the guanciale pan off the heat, and pour in the egg solution into the pasta nest without letting it touch the sides of the pan. Stir and toss until the sauce thickens. If the texture is too dry, loosen by adding a ladleful of pasta water. If the sauce is not thickening, the pan can go back on low heat, as long as you are mixing continuously. Keep in mind that the sauce will continue to thicken at the table as it cools.
Taste and correct for salt before transferring to a warmed serving platter. Serve immediately with a dusting of the reserved cheese and black pepper, garnishing with the crispy guanciale that you set aside.

Substitutions–only if absolutely necessary (!)

Guanciale (cured pork jowl) lends a subtle sweetness to this dish. Here in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, it can be found at specialty delis and butchers.
If substituting pancetta (cured pork belly), please note that it will taste saltier. Therefore, the pasta water ought to be salted less. Instead of thin slices of pancetta, look for thick slabs that you can cut into strips yourself. If using bacon, the thicker and less smoky, the better.
Neither oil nor butter are needed– just add the guanciale to the pan when it is still cold, and then turn on the heat. This has the opposite effect of searing steak on a hot surface – here, we will let the fat run freely.
Both long pasta (such as spaghetti, bucatini, and pici), and short shapes (like rigatoni, paccheri or mezze maniche) can work with this sauce.
The egg in a perfect Carbonara is not fully cooked through. Fresh eggs are recommended, and I rinse the egg shells before cracking them to avoid salmonella poisoning. In Japan, fresh eggs are sold pre-washed, because we often eat them raw (even simply cracked atop a bowl of rice!)