Mmmmm delicious Pasta Carbonara… And such a famous and absolutely delicious dish deserved an article in which we learn about its origins and the different varieties that exist. But, above all, to clarify that authentic "carbonara" do not have creamIf not, that creamy sauce that accompanies them is made from eggs and the cooking broth of the pasta itself.
But let's go step by step ... what is the origin of this sauce? How do you prepare authentic pasta carbonara? How is your version with cream? What other dishes can we prepare carbonara style? Well, if you are a lover of this dish, you cannot miss this article, here we go!
Origin of pasta carbonara
Originally, pasta carbonara comes from Italy, specifically from Rome. For Italians, carbonara is not a sauce but a dish itself. Although perhaps the type of pasta most used for carbonara is spaghetti, you can also use other types such as tagliatelle, fettuccine, rigatoni, farfalle ...
As happens many times, the origin of this dish is not clear and several stories circulate around it. One of them says that the word "carbonara" comes from "carbone" (which in Italian means coal) and, specifically, from a pasta dish with egg that miners cooked in the Apennine region. In addition, the similarity of the black pepper sprinkled on top of the plate with the color of the coal is also related.
How to prepare the authentic carbonara
The basic ingredients for an authentic carbonara pasta are: pasta, eggs, guanciale (cured pork cheeks), salt and freshly ground black pepper. Finding guanciale in our supermarkets is difficult, so here we can substitute it for cured pork belly.
The cheeks are cooked in a frying pan without the need to use any additional fat since it will be the cheeks or guanciale itself that releases all the juice necessary to cook it and that will give that flavor so characteristic to this dish. Next, we will add the pasta cooked al dente hot, the beaten eggs and, over a low heat, we will gradually add tablespoons of the cooking water to the pasta and stir slowly so that a creamy sauce is created that does not curdle. We finish the dish with freshly ground black pepper.
If you dare to prepare it with your thermomix, we leave you here a great recipe for tagliatelle carbonara.
Carbonara pasta with cream and other versions
Preparing a carbonara pasta with cream is in the eyes of Italians, as if they told us that paella has fried tomato! Come on, a real sacrilege. However, this preparation of carbonara with cream and bacon It has spread enormously outside of Italy, even overtaking the authentic ones with eggs.
The version with cream is prepared in the same way as the traditional ones but mixing the eggs with the cream, without the need to add cooking water. The truth is that they are delicious, but being purists, they cannot be called carbonara.
If you dare with this version, on the blog we have two modes: spaghetti carbonara de nata express y spaghetti carbonara with cream and cheese, for me the latter are really delicious because the sauce is prepared with cream and parmesan cheese and has a delicious flavor !!
What else can we prepare "a la carbonara"?
Leaving ourselves from the more classic version of pasta carbonara, we can use those key ingredients of egg, bacon / bacon and cream to make new preparations. We leave you some ideas, you will see how delicious!
Bacon-style carbonara-filled empanada
And the cheese?
Hi Antonio, the most used cheese for pasta carbonara is Pecorino Romano or Parmesan. Thanks for writing to us!
hello I have the Thermomix and with your recipes I am going to enjoy a lot
Thanks Mari, welcome to Thermorecetas!