Carbonara Romana
Hands up all those who have made spaghetti carbonara with cream and bacon? Me too – it was how I was taught to make it. I won’t be making that way anymore. After watching ‘Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy’, I went in search of guanciale and pecorino. The recipe is so simple: guanciale, pecorino and eggs. Nearly all recipes that are out there call for the use of whole eggs; I knew that I only wanted to use egg yolks in order to achieve a rich (deep yellow) mayonnaise-like consistency for the sauce which I knew could never be reached with whole eggs. Along with the yolk, the other important ingredient required for a creamy sauce is the judicious addition of pasta cooking water to create an unctuous emulsion.
Serves 2
Carbonara Romana
200g good quality dried pasta – I use Rummo Bucatini Nº6
100g guanciale; cut into lardons
60g pecorino; finely grated + more to finish
4 free-range egg yolks
sea salt flakes
Freshly ground black peppercorns
Instructions
- Put a large pan of water on to boil. Add the pasta to the boiling water.
- In a wide-bottomed, deep pan, add the guanciale lardons and render the fat over a low heat.
- Crack the eggs and separate the yolks into a large bowl. Whisk in the grated pecorino and 5 good grinds of black peppercorns.
- Continue to cook the lardons until they begin to colour then turn off the heat.
- Take 1 ladle of pasta cooking water and carefully whisk it into the egg yolk mix.
- Once the pasta is cooked, use a pasta ladle to transfer it to the pan with the lardons. Stir to combine.
- Pour the egg yolk mix to the pasta and whisk in.
- Add more pasta cooking water to reach your desired consistency.
- Plate up using the pasta ladle and a fork. Swirl the spaghetti and carefully place the spaghetti cylinder on a plate. Spoon over the remaining sauce and lardons. Finish with a grating of pecorino.
JAMx