Black four simple ingredients, three poor foods of peasant tradition: bacon, egg yolks, pecorino romano, black pepper. Yet, behind this apparent, but only apparent, simplicity lies one of the iconic dishes of the Roman gastronomy, difficult to execute in order to create a harmonious amalgam of its flavors combined with long or short pasta depending on the different schools of thought, which has traveled around the world and on which the sun never seems to set. A rather recent dish does not have a long history, it would have been born from the war events of 1943-1945 but today it has the honor of seeing his name celebrated all over the world on April 6th when the "Carbonara day” celebration which coincides with the publication of the Carbonara recipe which appeared for the first time in 1954 in the monthly magazine La Cucina Italiana. The event, promoted by the pasta makers of Unione Italiana Food, invites everyone to celebrate Carbonara by sharing their own versions of the dish on social media, involving Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in a real virtual spaghetti dinner.
There is no shortage of conflicting opinions regarding its origin. Some, in fact, claim that it was invented by American soldiers during the Second World War by combining bacon with the powdered eggs contained in K rations, while others attribute the paternity to a chef from Bologna intent on satisfying the palates of the Allied troops. Its paternity was also claimed by Renato Gualandi, a young chef from Bologna who in 1944, on the occasion of the meeting between the American Fifth Army and the English Eighth Army in Riccione, recalled "The Americans had fantastic bacon, delicious cream , some cheese and some egg yolk powder. I put everything together and served this pasta to the generals and officers for dinner. At the last moment I decided to add some black pepper which released an excellent flavour. I cooked them enough "bavosetti" and they were won over by the pasta."
But according to others, starting from the onomatopoeia of its name, the origin of the dish would be traced back to the carbonari of L'Aquila, who prepared this recipe which would be an evolution of the Abruzzo "cacio e ove" using easily available ingredients and which above all on they lent themselves to long preservation.
Finally, someone thought of ennobling this specialty by identifying it in a recipe present in the 1837 treatise on Theoretical-Practical Cuisine by the Neapolitan gastronome Ippolito Cavalcanti.
What is certain is that the charm of this dish, loved all over the world, appears timeless and has been variously interpreted to the point that the New York Times cited over 400 documented variations
To date, there are over one million contents of the hashtag #Carbonara on Instagram. According to Margherita Mastromauro, president of the Unione Italiana Food pasta makers, “carbonara represents the dish of the Rebirth, which marks the exit from the war and the beginning of the economic boom. It is synonymous with freedom and the many versions of this dish around the world are proof of this."
Among the chefs who, in the desire to give a personal touch to their menus, albeit with deferential respect for tradition, have attempted the re-edition of this timeless dish, Mondo Food has chosen to propose the highly original version of the starred chef Joseph DiIorio executive of Aroma, the famous restaurant on the terrace of Palazzo Manfredi, overlooking the Colosseum, frequented by the international jet set, heads of state and government, artists, cinema and theater actors and great sports champions. Di Iorio offers his Carbonara made with excellent raw materials by bringing the pasta to the table while it is still inside a mixology shaker. It is right there that the preparation is completed, allowing all the ingredients to mix well together and strictly away from the heat. Thus, the cream made from pecorino romano and eggs fills the mezze sleeves and blends with the crunchy bacon. Everything is then poured onto the diner's plate through a fascinating live rotation of the shaker, which will thus release a rich dish with unique aromas and textures.
The recipe for shaken Carbonara
Ingredients for one serving:
Rigatoni 80gr
Egg yolk n.3
Pillow 30gr
Pecorino Romano 30gr
Toasted Black Pepper 3gr
Procedure:
Leave the bacon to brown slowly in a pan over a low heat. As the bacon releases its own fat, leave part of it in the pan and the other half, with the help of a whisk, add it to the egg yolks and the previously grated pecorino; emulsify everything until you create a cream. Separately, toast the pepper and place it in a mortar, pressing while hot to release all the aromas and oils. Cook the pasta for ¾ of its cooking time, then drain, pour into the pan in which the bacon was toasted and finish cooking by adding the cooking water (unsalted), rich in the released starch. Move the pan from the heat, lower the temperature to around 50°C, then add the previously prepared egg and pecorino cream and, over a low heat, thicken until it "writes". Once this level of density has been reached, add the previously browned bacon and place the mixture in the shaker. Shake the shaker 6/7 times, then empty it directly onto the plate and serve.
Aroma restaurant
Via Labicana, 125 – 00184 Rome
Tel. +39 06 97615109
