Roman Carbonara

Background

Carbonara is a pasta dish made with cured pork, hard cheese, eggs, salt and black pepper, typical of Italy's Lazio region, which took its present form and name only in the mid-20th century. The cheese is usually pecorino romano, the meat is traditionally cured pork cheek (guanciale), and the pasta is mostly spaghetti, though bucatini or rigatoni are also used. According to English Wikipedia, both its origin and its name are unclear: there is no record of “carbonara” before the Second World War, and it does not appear in Ada Boni's 1930 La cucina romana. The name first appears in a 1939 newspaper in the Dutch East Indies, which mentions a restaurant in Rome's Trastevere district famous for the dish; in 1950 the Italian newspaper La Stampa reported that American officers were looking for “spaghetti alla carbonara” in Trastevere. Another theory links it to the bacon and powdered eggs brought by the Allies during the Second World War, but all of these are only conjecture.

Local customs

• The Roman way uses no cream: egg yolks (or whole eggs) and pecorino are whisked into a sauce, and off the heat the residual warmth of the pasta turns it into a thick sauce
• the guanciale is fried until its fat renders and the edges crisp
• black pepper and cheese are sprinkled on at the table
• Italians twirl the pasta with a fork and generally do not use a spoon.

Religion & beliefs

• Carbonara itself has nothing to do with religion
• together with amatriciana, cacio e pepe and gricia it is one of Rome's four traditional pastas and an everyday dish in Roman trattorias. In Catholic tradition, families who keep the Friday abstinence avoid meat pastas like this one.

Rules that apply here

Travel tips

• Trastevere, Monti and Testaccio have many traditional trattorias, and a meal takes a little over an hour
• Romans usually start dinner after 8 pm, and popular places need booking. You can combine it with a stroll in Trastevere, Santa Maria Maggiore and the Testaccio Market. Dining tips: the egg in the sauce is heated only by residual heat and is not fully cooked, so pregnant women and people with weakened immunity can ask whether it can be cooked more thoroughly
• guanciale is pork
• it contains gluten, dairy and eggs. Many trattorias close on Sunday evening or Monday, and some also close for summer holidays in August, so check before you go. Prices and opening hours are as set by each restaurant
• popular long-established restaurants often have queues, so going outside regular mealtimes is more relaxed.