OMG Carbonara!! The holy grail of easy but not easy Italian dish, and oh boy is there a lot of debate on how this dish should be made.

So here’s the deal, carbonara has very few ingredients. And like anything that has few ingredients, each ingredient becomes extremely important and subject to a lot of discussion and debate. Let’s take a look at some of these, starting with the elephant in the room – CREAM!

• Cream or no cream … alas, it’s like the debate between good and evil. Carbonara in Rome (where carbonara is from) does not have cream in it. So as a carbonara “purist”, I vote no cream. In fact, to a carbonara purist, this isn’t even a debatable point. So why then, would cream even be part of this discussion you might ask. Well, the answer is simple – carbonara is a “creamy” dish and the easiest way to make something “creamy” is to add cream. Not only that, it makes the sauce a lot more forgiving overall, giving your eggs a better chance of not scrambling. It also helps buy time between when the dish is ready to serve and when you actually sit down to eat it. Carbonara is a dish meant to be eaten IMMEDIATELY when it is done. Because the sauce is dense and rich, it will become “gluggy” when cold – so adding cream helps you (or the chef) buy some time. 

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s look at the other important but perhaps less debated points.

• Bacon anyone? Carbonara is traditionally made with guanciale, or cured pork cheek, which may not be easy to find depending on where you live and the access you have to an Italian grocer or deli. You can substitute guanciale with pancetta, which is cured pork belly, so close enough. Get your butcher or deli guy to slice it thick (like 1/4 inch thickness or more), then you can cut into strips or cubes yourself at home. If you can’t get pancetta, then bacon works too; keep in mind bacon is smoked, so it will give carbonara a different taste than what one might get in Rome. But since bacon is my Achilles heel, I won’t poo-poo it, even as a purist. You got bacon? Use it, it’s dang good.
• Parmesan or Pecorino? This one doesn’t have a strict rule. Pecorino is the traditional cheese (it as a stronger, saltier flavor), but you can use whatever you can find, or a combination of the two. Most important point is to use the best quality cheese you have available to you (so walk right past that Kraft parmesan cheese in the grocery store aisle); remember, few ingredients means everything counts!
• Pasta type. This is about what vehicle is best for the sauce, and honestly, spaghetti is great for this. You can try different types of pasta here, but sometimes old school is best. The only important thing is that fresh pasta does not work well, so go with the store bought dried pasta, and save yourself a few dollars (which you will need for the guanciale 😛 )

The only other two ingredient to talk about is pasta water – use it to help thin out your sauce to get the creamy consistency and texture you like. And the rendered oil (fat) from the guanciale or pancetta or bacon is the key to dish and plays a huge role in the emulsification process that gives carbonara the texture and creaminess (without cream). 

While the ingredients list is short, and TV chefs make it look easy, I would say this is one of the hardest dishes to make well. Try ordering carbonara at various restaurants and you’ll see the difference in each dish – even trained chefs make bad carbonara. Regardless, it’s kinda fun to make, and since my step-kids keep asking me to make it, I’ve had a lot of chances to practice 😀 (thanks kids!)

This dish is all about technique, which can take a few attempts to master. Even the techniques vary far and wide and we can keep going with this post, but I’d rather you go and try to make this and let me know how it went. The recipe and technique I am sharing here is inspired by Sarah Cicolini, a new young chef in Rome who is getting a lot of press and recognition for her Carbonara, among other Italian dishes. Look her up, she’s super.