Today we’ll learn how to prepare one of the most traditional dishes of Italian cuisine, namely spaghetti alla carbonara. According to one version of the story, the recipe originated towards the end of World War II, when the only products available on the black market were pork cheek lard, eggs and sheep’s milk cheese (pecorino); the housewives of the time applied their imagination to create a recipe interpreted in many different variants. Whenever you walk into a Roman trattoria or enter the home of a Roman grandmother, you’ll be treated to the ‘local’ version of carbonara; famous chefs of various backgrounds have modified this recipe to adapt it to their territory.
It is commonly heard that the dressing attracts the pasta, in the sense that each dressing must go with a specific type of pasta. We’ll go the other way around, that is, starting from the pasta and adapting the dressing accordingly, to create a carbonara tailored to our Spaghetti Mancini Unique Edition for FABI|COSEBUONE.
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INGREDIENTS
Spaghetti Mancini Unique Edition for FABI|COSEBUONE – 90 g
Two fresh egg yolks
Pork cheek lard – 30 g
Pecorino romano (DOP) sheep’s milk cheese – 100 g
Black peppercorns
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This is a very quick recipe that takes 10 minutes to prepare, while the spaghetti cook in abundant salted water. Prepare two separate bowls; grate the pecorino cheese in one bowl and add the ground black pepper then beat the two egg yolks in the other bowl (1,2). Gradually add small ladle spoonfuls of cooking water together with the pecorino cheese and continue stirring until obtaining a velvety cream with the lumps still visible (3).
Meanwhile, cut the pork cheek lard into thin strips (4) and let it ‘sweat’ in a non-stick pan – in other words, cook it over a low flame without oil so that it slowly loses its fat and becomes crusty. Recover some of the fat and mix it with the egg yolks. Beat vigorously with the beater to create a cream that is not too thick.
At this point, drain the spaghetti directly in the bowl with the egg yolks. Briefly whisk to flavour the spaghetti (5) then serve them over a bed of pecorino and pepper cream (6), before topping with the strips of pork cheek lard and sprinkling some pecorino and ground pepper (7, 8).
From the very first forkful you’ll feel the crusty and salty cheek lard, immediately followed by the sweet flavour of spaghetti with egg, which clean the palate and prepare it for the final leg of the flavour journey: the pecorino cream.
Recipe by Luca Robledo
