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Italian Cooking Made Easy: Roman-Style Carbonara Recipe – One Of My Favorite Pasta Dishes

Italian Cooking Made Easy: Roman-Style Carbonara Recipe - One Of My Favorite Pasta Dishes

It’s always interesting to travel to places where your favorite dishes originated and get a taste of authenticity. Carbonara is one of my favorite pasta dishes; the combination of egg, cheese, and bacon is one that I just cannot resist. So you can imagine how ecstatic I was to take a bite out of Rome during my recent visit. On my first night, I walked with a pep in my step to a local restaurant in Testaccio to have my first taste of carbonara, and what I found was very surprising.

The plate in front of me had no spaghetti, no parmesan, and most shockingly, no cream. In their place was a mound of rigatoni tossed in a rich yellow sauce topped with pecorino cheese. To add, there were chunks of porky goodness called guanciale, made from pig cheek. The product was a gorgeous dish that was more palette pleasing than any creamy carbonara I’ve had in the past. I knew then and there that the edible masterpiece before me was carbonara done right.

Since my time in Rome, I’ve had some serious carbonara withdrawals. I’ve never been to a restaurant in the states that made a Roman-style carbonara. I couldn’t come to terms with the fact that I would never taste carbonara like that again until I have the time and money to head back to Italy. My obsession with food led me to researching Roman-style carbonara recipes. I found that the key reason behind why most carbonaras outside of Italy simply cannot compare is simple: they consist of incorrect ingredients. Unfortunately for me, while I would love to get my hands on some guanciale and pecorino cheese, it would cost an arm and a leg to get those kinds of products in California. I decided to adapt the recipes to the products that are most accessible to me without compromising the most essential components of the dish. Below is my version of Roman-style carbonara.

Ingredients:
• 16 oz of thick-sliced bacon, cut into small pieces
• 16 oz of rigatoni pasta
• 4 eggs
• 8 oz parmigiano reggiano, freshly grated
• ½ cup sparkling water
• Splash of white wine
• Pinch of black pepper

Italian Cooking Made Easy: Roman-Style Carbonara Recipe - One Of My Favorite Pasta Dishes

Directions:
1. In a large pot, cook the bacon over medium high heat with a splash of white wine. Cook for 10 minutes or until bacon is crispy. Remove pot from heat, drain most of the fat (do not remove bacon from pot), and set pot to the side to cool off.
2. Cook pasta in heavily salted water according to package directions.
3. Once the bacon pot is cool, beat eggs and add it to the pot with a pinch of black pepper.
4. When pasta is done cooking, drain, and add it to the pot along with the sparkling water and 6 oz of cheese.
5. Over medium heat, very rapidly mix ingredients together until smooth (about 10 seconds).
6. Serve pasta on plates and sprinkle with cheese to taste.

Italian Cooking Made Easy: Roman-Style Carbonara Recipe - One Of My Favorite Pasta DishesItalian Cooking Made Easy: Roman-Style Carbonara Recipe - One Of My Favorite Pasta Dishes

Of course, if you have guanciale and pecorino cheese at your disposal, feel free to use them as substitutes for the bacon and parmigianno. If not, the ingredients above will do fine. I made this dish for lunch today and it fulfilled my carbonara craving nicely. Buon appetito!