The origins and (real) recipe for carbonara spaghetti

It is an emblematic dish known to all: carbonara spaghetti.

Yet what the French consider a carbonara has nothing to do with the traditional Italian recipe.

In "Historically Vôtre" on Friday, Olivier Poels therefore delivers the real recipe for this dish.

No more cream and bacon, make way for guanciale and pecorino!

But before unraveling the secrets of this recipe, take a little detour through the history and creation of carbonara pasta. 

A partially American origin? 

As often, two stories claim to hold the truth about the creation of the carbonara.

In the first, it is attributed to the carbonari, workers who worked in the extraction of coal.

They ate pasta with egg and cheese, for their nourishing virtue. 

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For its part, the second story dates the origin of this dish to the year 1944, in Naples.

That year, American soldiers are in town and quite frequently buy what you can find on the street to eat.

That is, small portions of pasta sold simply sprinkled with a little pecorino.

A dish not very appreciated by the soldiers who decide to add what is in their rations: dehydrated egg yolks and bacon.

The dish gains in taste and satiety.

Two years later, this American version is available in restaurants in the Naples area.  

If today, no one is able to determine which of these two stories is true, one thing is certain: there has never been any cream or bacon in a carbonara!

It is not forbidden to make it with it, but it has nothing to do with the original recipe.

The ingredients for 4 people

- 400 grams of spaghetti

- 300 grams of guanciale (pork cheek)

- 4 egg yolks

- 200 grams of pecorino

- Salt pepper

Recipe

1.

Mix the egg yolks and the pecorino

2.

Cut the guanciale into cubes and brown them

3.

Cook the pasta and keep a quarter of a glass of cooking water

4.

Combine all the ingredients in a hot pan

5.

 Pepper generously