Italy
Photo: Javier Somoza, CC BY-SA 4.0, croppedCarbonara
/karboˈnaːra/kar-boh-NAH-rah
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- Taste
- SavoryRich
- Made with
- Wheat & flourEggPorkDairy & cheese
History
Carbonara is spaghetti or rigatoni tossed off the heat with egg yolks, grated pecorino romano, crisp cubes of guanciale (cured pork cheek) and a lot of black pepper, so the egg turns into a silky sauce without scrambling. There is no cream in the Roman version. It is surprisingly young: no record of it exists before the Second World War. One theory says it was created in 1944 when American soldiers in Rome had bacon and powdered eggs; another links the name to charcoal workers, carbonari, in the Apennines. It first appeared in print in the early 1950s and became one of Rome's four great pastas.
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