A very popular dish in Italy and a simple cooking method is spaghetti carbonara. The history of its origin is associated with Italian coal artels. Once upon a time, coal miners, distributing their black goods across Italy, prepared unprecedented pasta, pork cheek and sheep’s cheese dishes at halts in small villages and cities. Delicious and tempting smells from coal-pots, a simple set of products and speed of preparation contributed to the fact that the dish quickly spread throughout Italy and became one of the most beloved in the country. It is also said that during cooking, coal powder from the clothes of artisans fell into the pot, “sprinkling” pasta with black dust. For a long time there are no coal artels, and carbonara spaghetti is prepared in civilian kitchens, but paying tribute to the past, this dish is abundantly sprinkled with ground pepper, reminiscent of its "coal" origin.
Over a long history, the recipe has acquired several options that differ in the types of cheese and meat filler and in the quantitative ratio of products. However, its basis remains unchanged - it is a special preparation sauce and boiled spaghetti. The “highlight” of the recipe is that the sauce, which includes raw eggs, as if brewed, “reaches” readiness only when it comes into contact with hot pasta.
Classic Spaghetti Carbonara
Thin pasta is boiled in a large saucepan in a large amount of water with the addition of oil and salt. While they are boiling, a little finely chopped onion and grated garlic are fried in a pan in olive oil. Thin plastic bacon is cut into strips and fried along with onions, garlic and traditional Italian spices. In a separate bowl, beat the yolks, rub the pecorino sheep’s cheese or parmesan known to all and combine with the yolks. To make the dish completely Italian, you need to mix these two types of cheese together. Ready spaghetti is transferred to a pan with bacon, and the yolk-cheese mixture is very quickly poured on top and mixed thoroughly. If the sauce is not enough and the pasta is thick, you can add quite a bit of water from the pan where they were cooked, so do not rush to completely drain it. A pinch of ground black pepper is poured into the plates with pasta on top. For 300 grams of spaghetti you need to take 200 grams of bacon, 100 grams of cheese and 2-3 yolks.
Non-classic recipe
You can cook carbonara paste in a different way, for example, with sour cream. However, it is no longer possible to call such a recipe a classic one, since in Italy the addition of cream and sour cream is unacceptable. But such modifications are widely used in England and America. There, dairy products are added to the sauce very often. Cook the sour cream sauce carbonara. Boil spaghetti in the usual way. For the sauce, mix two eggs with sour cream, ground oregano and basil, grated cheese (100 grams). Fry slices of loin or bacon in a pan and add a mixture of eggs and sour cream at the end of the process. Quickly stir with a spatula so that the eggs do not have time to curl. Then put the prepared spaghetti in the sauce, mix everything, sprinkle with pepper.
As an addition to spaghetti carbonara, Italian red wine, a light green salad, slices of sheep’s cheese and fresh tomatoes, sprinkled with butter and herbs, are always placed on the table. There is another secret to serving this dish properly. It is very important to keep it hot for as long as possible so that the sauce does not lose its taste. Therefore, before spreading the pasta into portions, large flat plates are heated in the oven and only after that pasta is placed on them. So the dish stays hot longer. It should be remembered that it can not be heated, the sauce will become tasteless.