Archives

Recipes

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

1 Comment

21 March 2023

Cacio e Pepe, Pasta alla Gricia, Spaghetti all’Amatriciana, and Spaghetti alla Carbonara are the Holy Quaternity of Roman pasta dishes.

The sauce for Cacio e Pepe is little more than Pecorino Romano cheese emulsified into some of the pasta-cooking water to make a glossy sauce.  Pasta alla Gricia adds cured pork, usually guanciale, to Cacio e Pepe.  Amatriciana adds tomato to Gricia while  Carbonara adds egg to Gricia.

And there you have it, arguably the four most important pasta dishes of Roman cuisine.

The origins of Spaghetti alla Carbonara are murky.  Given the obvious relationship between these four pasta dishes one might think that there’s not much to talk about, one just naturally leading into the other.  However, there is some intriguing evidence, and a little speculation, about the origins of Carbonara.

Join our mailing list and you’ll never miss a recipe again!

The evidence and speculation go like this.  During the Allied liberation of Rome during WWII, the bacon and (powdered) eggs of American GI rations were combined with pasta to make a proto-Carbonara.  Some Italians agree with this, and some do not.  Those who do not usually insist that the cured pork product of choice is guanciale (cured pork jowl) not pancetta (cured pork belly) let alone American bacon.

But think about it.  How likely is it that the Romans had any cured pork hanging around near the end of WWII?  It’s more likely that they consumed anything that was consumable by then.  The existence of guanciale in any significant quantity is unlikely.  In addition, the first reference to Spaghetti alla Carbonara appeared in the newspaper La Stampa in 1950, indicating it was a favorite of American GIs.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that Spaghetti alla Carbonara existed prior to WWII and was made with guanciale.  After the Allied liberation of Rome, it’s reasonable to see how GI rations of (powdered) egg and bacon could have been substituted for fresh eggs and guanciale.  It’s also possible, even probable, that if it existed before the 1940s, Carbonara wasn’t written about because it was part of the cuisine of the poor (cucina povera).  Despite our current fascination with traditional cuisine, until recently culinary history largely focused on foods eaten by the upper classes, not the poor.

Follow us on social media

          

Unless more evidence comes to light, we may never know the origins of Spaghetti alla Carbonara.  Even so, there are some things we can say definitively:

  1. Adding cream to Carbonara is an abomination!
  2. If not the original meat, American bacon has a legitimate place in the history of Carbonara.
  3. Carbonara is delicious, whether made with guanciale, bacon, or pancetta.  Yes, each is different but each is delicious!  I’ve used all of them.  I prefer bacon but I’ll never turn down a well-made dish (or three) of Spaghetti alla Carbonara regardless of what cured pork product went into it.

The most challenging part of making carbonara is to incorporate the eggs, getting them to thicken into a sauce without either remaining raw or turning into scrambled eggs.  I’ve got a little trick that eliminates these concerns.

Read on!

Print Recipe
 Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Spaghetti alla Carbonara is one of the four classic Roman pasta dishes, along with Cacio e Pepe, Pasta alla Gricia, and Spaghetti all’Amatriciana. It can be made with guanciale, American bacon, or pancetta though guanciale and bacon probably have the greatest claim on tradition. My preference is bacon. If using guanciale, I sometimes decrease the amount by 10% because it usually has more fat than either bacon or pancetta.
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Cut the bacon into matchstick-size pieces.
  2. Sauté the bacon in a dry sauté pan until some fat renders.
  3. Add the garlic and sauté until the garlic is quite golden, but not brown. Remove the garlic and reserve. If the bacon is not well browned, continue cooking.
  4. Meanwhile, combine the eggs, egg yolks, Pecorino Romano cheese, 2 teaspoons black pepper, and reserved cooked garlic in a blender jar. Reserve.
  5. When the bacon is brown, add the wine and remove from the heat unless you are adding the pasta immediately. The dish can be made several hours ahead to this point.
  6. Cook the spaghetti in salted water until just shy of al dente.
  7. Just before draining the pasta, reheat the bacon and cook off the wine.
  8. Add the pasta to the bacon and sauté on medium to medium-high heat.
  9. Add pasta-cooking water, about one ladleful at a time, and continue cooking the pasta, stirring frequently, until al-dente. There should be enough liquid to coat the pasta in a thick "sauce."
  10. Just as the pasta reaches al dente, turn on the blender. Blend the contents thoroughly and then add about 120 ml (½ cup) of the hot pasta cooking liquid while the blender is still running.
  11. Off the heat, add the blended egg mixture to the pasta along with the parsley, if using, and even more freshly ground black pepper.
  12. Mix well to turn the eggs into a creamy sauce, adding pasta-cooking water if needed. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.
  13. Pour into a warmed serving bowl and serve immediately.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2023 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

Share this Recipe
Recipes

Louis Evangelista’s Pasta e Fagioli (“Beans and Macaroni”)

Leave a comment

August 22, 2018

I completed my residency in psychiatry in June 1981.  Although I was part of the 1980 graduating class in medical school, I didn’t finish until 1981.  The added year allowed me to get a master’s degree in anthropology as well as to complete all my coursework, field work, and dissertation defense for a PhD.  I didn’t finish writing my PhD dissertation and, unfortunately, didn’t get a PhD.  (The reason I didn’t finish writing my dissertation is a long story better suited for another day.)

I started a private practice in Philadelphia as soon as I finished my residency, forming a partnership with Gene d’Aquili.  Our office was at 2400 Chestnut Street.  It was an apartment building but was conveniently located to the University of Pennsylvania and the management was happy to allow us to rent one of the apartments for use as an office.

In quick succession, Wolf Rieger, another psychiatrist from Penn and one of my previous instructors, did the same thing right down the hall from us.

Mark Vuolo, another resident in my group opened his practice a few floors up from us.

Join our mailing list and you’ll never miss a recipe again!

It was a congenial group.

Starting a private practice takes a while so I, like most newly-minted psychiatrists, took on a part-time job.  I was a hired by the Lenape Valley Foundation (LVF) in Bucks County, north of Philadelphia.  LVF provided the bulk of the psychiatric services in Bucks County.  The Foundation provided the community mental health center for the county, ran the psychiatric inpatient unit at the hospital in Doylestown, provided psychiatric services to the Bucks County Correctional Facility, consulted at area nursing homes, and ran a psychiatric partial hospital, among other things.

Part of my responsibility was to be the psychiatrist at the partial hospital.  A partial hospital is a program that operates during the day, with patients going home for the night.  It can serve as a bridge from the hospital to less intensive treatment or it can provide supportive services in an ongoing manner for individuals who need more care than can be provided in an office-based psychiatric practice.

Follow us on your social media platform of choice

          

Each day, a group of patients and a staff member made lunch for everyone.  In psychiatric parlance, this would be an “activity of daily living” (ADL) and would be considered a therapeutic activity.  The older adults usually made comforting, grandmotherly food.  Louis Evangelista, the Music and Movement Therapist, often had his group make Italian food.

By regulation, I, as the psychiatrist, was required to be onsite a specified number of hours per week based on the number of patients.  After a few months, once I knew all the long-term patients and had a good system in place to evaluate the new ones, I had time on my hands so I took on one of the ADL groups.  It was probably the only time a partial hospital had a psychiatrist teaching patients how to cook!

Louis made a killer pasta e fagioli.  He learned it from his Sicilian grandfather.  When I left the Lenape Valley Foundation and the partial hospital, it was the meal I requested for my last day.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Print Recipe
 Louis Evangelista's Pasta e Fagioli
Canned red kidney beans work well in this recipe but if you want even more flavor, start by cooking dry beans. If you do, I suggest using my recipe for Cannellini alla Toscana, substituting red kidney beans. A link to the recipe is in the Notes section, below. A little olive oil added at the end will improve both the flavor and the mouth-feel of the sauce.
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Bring four quarts of water seasoned with 1/3 cup of salt to a boil.
  2. Meanwhile, gently heat the beans and their liquid in a small pot.
  3. Separate the leaves of the escarole.
  4. In a sauté pan large enough to hold everything, heat the olive oil.
  5. Add the garlic to the oil and sauté over medium-low heat until brown. Be careful not to burn the garlic or it will impart a bitter taste.
  6. When the garlic is brown, discard it and remove the oil from the heat.
  7. When the water comes to a boil, add the escarole leaves, return to a boil, and cook until wilted, approximately 1 minute.
  8. Lift the escarole out of the water and toss with the oil in the skillet.
  10. Cook the spaghetti in the same water used to cook the escarole until it is almost al dente. It should still be just a bit crunchy on the inside.
  11. Add the warmed beans to the sauté pan with the escarole and keep warm on low heat.
  12. When the pasta is ready, reserve one cup of the pasta-cooking water.
  13. Drain the pasta and add to the beans and escarole.
  14. Season with black pepper to taste.
  15. Cook over medium to medium-low heat until the spaghetti is just al dente, adding the reserved pasta cooking water as needed.
  16. There should be enough liquid left to create a glossy sauce.
  17. Off the heat, add the grated cheese and a few glugs of olive oil if you wish (I do!)
  18. Taste and adjust salt.
  19. Serve immediately with grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano cheese on the side.
Recipe Notes

If you want to start with dried beans, use my recipe for Cannellini alla Toscana.

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

Share this Recipe
Recipes

Spaghetti Aglio, Olio, e Pepperoncino (Spaghetti with Garlic, Oil and Red Pepper)

2 Comments

November 8, 2017

How many Italian pasta sauces can you think of that do not include olive oil and garlic?

Precious few, I would guess!

This dish, classically Roman, elevates those two ingredients to center stage. You cannot hide bad olive oil or poorly cooked garlic in this dish. There are very few other flavors.

But simplicity has its virtues. It’s really hard to go wrong with this dish unless you use bad olive oil or not-so-stellar cheese or you burn the garlic.

Follow us on Facebook:  Click HERE

You can make a case for cooking the garlic for a whole range of times, from mere seconds up until it is dark brown. For many years I even cooked three different batches of garlic, one until brown, one until golden, and one until just fragrant. There is an interesting depth of flavor from doing so but it’s not the classic technique.

My point is, unless you burn the garlic and make it bitter, you won’t ruin the dish. You may prefer the flavor of the garlic when it is more or less brown but that’s just a preference not an absolute.

These little Italian peppers (“pepperoncino”) pack a nice flavor, not just heat

My recipe diverges from the classic Roman recipe in two places.

While making dinner, I’m usually chatting…with my in-laws (on most nights), with my husband (when he’s not away on business), or with guests. While I know I can time everything to be ready at exactly the right moment, I ask, why stress about it? So, yes, I can time the sautéing of the garlic to be just right when the pasta is ready but there’s an easier way.

I get the garlic to exactly the spot I want and then stop the cooking by taking the pan off the heat and adding a splash of wine (or water, if you must). That’s not classically Roman but it sure makes it much easier to have a conversation and a cocktail or three while making dinner. As soon as I plan on draining the pasta, I turn the heat on under the garlic oil and boil away the liquid I’ve added. Let’s face it, how often do we get to stop time with no consequences?

The second divergence from classic technique is that I add cheese to the pasta while mixing it with the garlic oil rather than just adding it at the table. In my mind there is no doubt that this pasta needs cheese. Adding it at the final stage of preparation allows me to create a glossy sauce where there would otherwise only be garlic oil. Not that that is bad, but I’ve made a bit of a reputation for myself by turning out glossy sauces where there would often only be oil.

It’s not hard. It just takes a bit of practice and some understanding (minimal) of the chemistry involved. And let’s face it, if the sauce isn’t glossy, you’re the only one who’s going to know. Again, there’s no penalty involved!

A brand of pasta that I really like

In Italy this pasta is often prepared and eaten after a night of over-indulging in alcohol. At least that’s the reputation it has. However, this was a common dish put on the dinner table when I was growing up. It’s easy, quick, filling, and darn good. Oh, and for an entirely different flavor, try butter in place of the olive oil!

Follow us

              

Click HERE to join our mailing list and you’ll never miss a recipe again!

Print Recipe
 Spaghetti Aglio, Olio, e Pepperoncino (Spaghetti with Garlic, Oil and Red Pepper)
I like to reduce last minute work, so I prep the garlic oil in advance and stop the cooking with a splash of wine. You can use water, if you wish, or, if you are sautéing the garlic as the pasta is cooking, some of the pasta-cooking liquid. As the pasta is nearing completion, I reheat the garlic oil, quickly boiling off the wine, and proceed. Use more or less garlic, to your taste. The same is true with the red pepper. For myself, I would use at least double this amount but that would be way too much for other folks.
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Slice off the hard base of each garlic clove.
  3. Cut the cloves in half top to bottom.
  5. Cut each half-clove of garlic crosswise into very thin slivers.
  6. In a sauté pan large enough to hold all the cooked spaghetti comfortably heat 1/3 cup of olive oil over gentle heat.
  7. Add the slivered garlic and sauté slowly and gently until golden brown. This should take 10-15 minutes if the heat is low enough.
  9. Add the red pepper and black pepper and sauté for another minute.
  10. Add the wine to stop cooking and remove the pan from the heat.
  11. Bring 2 ½ quarts of water to a boil. Season with ¼ cup of salt.
  12. Boil the spaghetti about two minutes less than the package indicates is needed for al dente.
  14. As the pasta is nearing completion, reheat the garlic oil.
  15. Just before removing the pasta from the boiling water, add 1 cup of pasta-cooking liquid to the garlic oil and turn the heat to medium high.
  16. Reserve another cup of pasta-cooking liquid then drain the pasta.
  17. Add the drained pasta to the pan with the garlic oil.
  18. Cook over medium to medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until the pasta is al dente. Add some of the reserved pasta-cooking liquid from time to time as needed.
  19. When the pasta is al dente, remove the pan from the heat. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese and parsley on top.
  20. Mix well to create a sauce by melting the cheese and emulsifying the oil and water. Add more of the pasta-cooking water, if needed, to coat the pasta.
  21. Stir in the 3 tablespoons of fruity or peppery extra-virgin olive oil for finishing.
  22. Serve immediately with extra Parmesan cheese.
Recipe Notes

Since olive oil loses much of its distinctive flavor from heating, adding some at the end, when the dish is off the heat, improves the flavor. Usually I keep several types of olive oil that I just use for finishing in this way. They tend to have different flavor profiles. Usually I have a peppery one and a buttery one on hand. These oils are used in small quantities so their higher price tag is worth the flavor they add.

Copyright © 2017 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

Share this Recipe