carbonara

As with many recipes, the origins of the dish and its name are obscure;{{cite web | title=Authentic Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe from Rome|first=Veruska|last=Anconitano| publisher=The Foodellers| date=8 May 2020 | url=https://thefoodellers.com/en/spaghetti-carbonara-recipe}} most sources trace its origin to the region of Lazio.{{cite web

|url=https://www.lacucinaitaliana.com/italian-food/italian-dishes/carbonara-origins-and-anecdotes-of-the-beloved-italian-pasta-dish

|title=Carbonara: Origins and Anecdotes of the Beloved Italian Pasta Dish

|first=Francine

|last=Segan|date=5 April 2022

|publisher=La Cucina Italiana

}}

The dish forms part of a family of dishes consisting of pasta with cured pork, cheese, and pepper, one of which is {{lang|it|pasta alla gricia}}. It is very similar to {{lang|it|pasta cacio e uova}}, a dish dressed with melted lard and a mixture of eggs and cheese, but not meat or pepper. {{lang|it|Cacio e uova}} is documented as far back as 1839 and, according to researchers, anecdotal evidence indicates that some Italians born before World War II associate that name with the dish now known as "carbonara".

There are many theories for the origin of the name {{lang|it|carbonara}}, which is probably more recent than the dish itself. There is no good evidence for any of them:

• Since the name is derived from {{lang|it|carbonaro}}, some people believe the dish was first made as a hearty meal for Italian charcoal workers. In parts of the United States, this etymology gave rise to the term coal miner's spaghetti.
• John F. Mariani writes that some people believe it was created as a tribute to the Carbonari ({{literally|charcoal burners}}) secret society prominent in the early, repressed stages of Italian unification ({{lang|it|Risorgimento}}) in the early 19th century.{{cite book|last1=Mariani|first1=John F.|first2=Mariani|last2=Galina|title=The Italian-American Cookbook: A Feast of Food From a Great American Cooking Tradition|publisher=Harvard Common|year=2000|pages=[https://archive.org/details/italianamericanc00john/page/140 140]–41|url=https://archive.org/details/italianamericanc00john|url-access=registration|isbn=978-1-55832-166-3}}
• It seems more probable that it is an "urban dish" from Rome."Myths" in Gillian Riley, The Oxford Companion to Italian Food, 2007, {{ISBN|0-19-860617-6}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-HStec87HdcC&pg=PT369 p. 342].

The names {{lang|it|pasta alla carbonara}} and {{lang|it|spaghetti alla carbonara}} are unrecorded before the Second World War; notably, it is absent from Ada Boni's 1930 {{lang|it|La cucina romana}} ({{literally|Roman cuisine}}). The 1931 edition of the Guide of Italy of the TCI describes a pasta ({{lang|it|strascinati}}) dish from Cascia and Monteleone di Spoleto, in Umbria, whose sauce contains whipped eggs, sausage, and pork fat and lean, which could be considered as a precursor of carbonara, although it does not contain any cheese.{{cite web|url=https://www.lastampa.it/il-gusto/2023/04/06/news/carbonara_day_e_umbra_la_nonna_del_piatto_piu_amato-395047698/|title=Carbonara day: altro che americana, la ricetta è nata in Umbria|author= Luca Cesari|author2= Jacopo Fontaneto|date=6 April 2023|website=La Stampa|access-date=6 April 2023|language=it}}

The name {{lang|it|carbonara}} first appears in print in 1950, when the Italian newspaper {{lang|it|La Stampa}} described it as a Roman dish sought out by American officers after the Allied liberation of Rome in 1944.{{cite web|url=http://www.archiviolastampa.it/component/option,com_lastampa/task,search/mod,libera/action,viewer/Itemid,3/page,3/articleid,0044_01_1950_0176_0003_10225103|title=Il papa ha "passato ponte"|publisher=La Stampa|date=26 July 1950|access-date=1 November 2020|work=archiviolastampa.it|language=it}}

According to one hypothesis, a young Italian Army cook named Renato Gualandi created the dish in 1944, with other Italian cooks, as part of a dinner for the U.S. Army, because the Americans "had fabulous bacon, very good cream, some cheese and powdered egg yolks".{{Cite web|url=https://www.gamberorosso.it/notizie/storie/le-origini-della-carbonara-linvenzione-di-gualandi-avvenne-a-roma-la-scoperta-di-igles-corelli/|title=Le origini della carbonara. L'invenzione di Gualandi avvenne a Roma: la scoperta di Igles Corelli|access-date=2 October 2020|language=it}}

Food writer Alan Davidson and food blogger and historian Luca Cesari have both stated that carbonara was born in Rome around 1944, just after the liberation of the city, probably because of the bacon that flowed in quantity with the U.S. Army.{{Cite web|author=Luca Cesari|title=La storia della carbonara – Capitolo 1. I precedenti|url=https://www.ricettestoriche.it/2018/03/12/la-storia-della-carbonara-capitolo-1-i-precedenti/ |language=it|date=12 March 2018|access-date=5 May 2023}}{{cite book|last=Davidson|first=Alan|author-link=Alan Davidson (food writer)|title=Oxford Companion to Food|publisher=Oxford UP|year=1999|location=Oxford|page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00davi_0/page/740 740]|isbn=0-19-211579-0}} Cesari adds that the dish is mentioned in an Italian movie from 1951,{{YouTube|G4lcnCy_20Y}} while the first attested recipe is in an illustrated cookbook{{Cite book|title=Vittles and Vice: An Extraordinary Guide to What's Cooking on Chicago's Near North Side|author=Patricia Bronté|publisher=H. Regnery Company|location=Chicago|year=1952|page=34}} published in Chicago in 1952 by Patricia Bronté.{{Cite web|author=Luca Cesari|title=La storia della carbonara – Capitolo 2. Gli esordi 1951-1960 |url=https://www.ricettestoriche.it/2018/03/11/la-storia-della-carbonara-capitolo-2-gli-esordi-1951-1960/|language=it|date=12 March 2018|access-date=5 May 2023}}{{Cite web|url=http://bressanini-lescienze.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2012/12/03/lorigine-della-carbonara-il-commissario-rebaudengo-indaga/|title=L'origine della Carbonara. Il commissario Rebaudengo indaga|date=3 December 2012|language=it|access-date=5 May 2023|author=Dario Bressanini}} According to Cesari, the recipe was probably brought to the United States by an American serviceman who had passed through Rome during the Italian campaign or by an Italian American who had met it in Rome, making carbonara a dish that closely links Italy and the United States. The controversial Italian academic and professor Alberto Grandi also said that carbonara's first attested recipe is American, citing Cesari, a claim that has been criticized in Italy.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/27/italian-academic-cooks-up-controversy-with-claim-carbonara-is-us-dish |title=Italian academic cooks up controversy with claim carbonara is US dish |first=Angela |last=Giuffrida |date= 27 March 2023 |work=The Guardian}}

In 1954, the first recipe for carbonara published in Italy appeared in {{lang|it|La Cucina Italiana}} magazine, although the recipe featured pancetta, garlic, and Gruyère cheese.{{cite magazine |title=Carbonara: How We Made It in the 1950s |url=https://www.lacucinaitaliana.com/italian-food/how-to-cook/carbonara-how-we-did-it-in-50s |access-date=14 May 2024 |magazine=La Cucina Italiana |publisher=Condé Nast |date=5 April 2022}} The same year, carbonara was included in Elizabeth David's Italian Food, an English-language cookbook published in Great Britain.{{cite book|title=Italian Food|first=Elizabeth|last=David|year=1954|publisher=Macdonald|location=Great Britain}}

File:Spaghetti alla Carbonara (cropped).jpg

The pasta is cooked in boiling water salted only moderately, due to the saltiness of the cured meat and the hard cheese. The meat is briefly fried in a pan in its own fat.{{cite book|last=Buccini|first=Antony F.|chapter=On Spaghetti alla Carbonara and related Dishes of Central and Southern Italy|title=Eggs in Cookery: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery 2006|editor-last=Hosking|editor-first=Richard|publisher=Oxford Symposium|year=2007|isbn=978-1-903018-54-5|pages=36–47|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfP6jHmSLnMC&pg=PT36}} A mixture of raw eggs (or yolks), grated cheese, and a liberal amount of ground black pepper is combined with the hot pasta either in the pasta pot or in a serving dish or bain-marie, but away from direct heat, to avoid curdling the egg. The fried meat is then added and the mixture is tossed, creating a rich, creamy sauce with bits of meat spread throughout.{{cite book|last=Gosetti della Salda|first=Anna|title=Le Ricette Regionali Italiane|publisher=Solares|location=Milan|year=1967|page=696|language=it|isbn=978-88-900219-0-9}}{{cite book|title=Ricettario Nazionale delle Cucine Regionali Italiane|publisher=Accademia Italiana della Cucina}} Various shapes of pasta can be used, almost always dried durum wheat pasta.{{Cite web |last=Gustiblog |date=2020-03-27 |title=On Serious Eats: a Pasta Rant |url=https://www.gustiamo.com/gustiblog/on-serious-eats-a-pasta-rant/ |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=Gustiamo}}

Guanciale is the most commonly used meat for the dish in Italy, but pancetta and {{lang|it|pancetta affumicata}} are also used{{cite book|first1=Luigi|last1=Carnacina|first2=Luigi|last2=Veronelli|title=La cucina Rustica Regionale|chapter=Vol. 2, Italia Centrale|publisher=Rizzoli|year=1977|oclc=797623404}} republication of La Buona Vera Cucina Italiana, 1966.{{cite book|first=Vincenzo|last=Buonassisi|title=Il Nuovo Codice della Pasta|publisher=Rizzoli|year=1985}} and, in English-speaking countries, bacon is often used as a substitute. The usual cheese is {{lang|it|pecorino romano}}; occasionally Parmesan, Grana Padano, or a combination of hard cheeses are used.{{cite book|last=Contaldo|first=Gennaro|title=Jamie's Food Tube: The Pasta Book|publisher=Penguin UK|year=2015}}{{cite book|last=Antonio|first=Carluccio|title=100 Pasta Recipes (My Kitchen Table)|publisher=BBC Books|year=2011}} Recipes differ as to which part of the egg is used—some use the whole egg, some others only the yolk, and still others a mixture.{{cite web|url=http://www.italianpastarecipes.it/recipes/spaghetti-carbonara-recipe/|title=Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe|work=ItalianPastaRecipes.it|access-date=2013-11-18|archive-date=2019-08-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190811083340/http://www.italianpastarecipes.it/recipes/spaghetti-carbonara-recipe/}} The amount of eggs used also vary, but the intended result is a creamy sauce from mild heating. For vegetarians or those observing Jewish kosher laws, there are also recipes that utilize mushrooms and vegetables instead of meat.{{Cite web |last=Music |first=Carla Lalli |date=2020-04-27 |title=Vegetarian Carbonara |url=https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/vegetarian-carbonara?srsltid=AfmBOor8N7ATXl2S9Rf0xJCdN_rY8NySkDhktmdoCmjfKwHwChesrURi |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=Bon Appétit |language=en-US}}{{cite web |last1=Baz |first1=Molly |title=Mushroom Carbonara |url=https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/mushroom-carbonara |website=Bon Appétit |publisher=Condé Nast |access-date=19 December 2023 |date=22 March 2019}}{{Cite book|author=Benedetta Jasmine Guetta|title=Cooking alla Giudia: A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy|publisher=Artisan|isbn=978-1-57965-980-6|year=2022|page=114}}

Some preparations have more sauce and therefore use tubular pasta, such as penne, which is better suited to holding sauce.{{cite book|title=The Food I Love: Beautiful, Simple Food to Cook at Home|last1=Perry|first1=Neil|author-link=Neil Perry|first2=Earl|last2=Carter|first3=Sue|last3=Fairlie-Cuninghame|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=2006|page=114|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9--loJsVdUC&pg=PA114|isbn=978-0-7432-9245-0}} Cream is not used in most Italian recipes,{{cite web|title=Spaghetti alla Carbonara (all'uso di Roma)|url=http://www.accademiaitalianacucina.it/en/content/spaghetti-alla-carbonara-alluso-di-roma|access-date=2016-08-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910215224/http://www.accademiaitalianacucina.it/en/content/spaghetti-alla-carbonara-alluso-di-roma|archive-date=2016-09-10}}{{cite book|last=Marchesi|first=Gualtiero|date=2015|author-link=Gualtiero Marchesi|title=La cucina italiana. Il grande ricettario|publisher=De Agostini|isbn=978-88-511-2733-6}} with some notable exceptions from the 20th century. However, it is often employed in other countries,{{cite book|last1=Herbst|first1=Sharon Tyler|author-link=Sharon Tyler Herbst|first2=Ron|last2=Herbst|title=The New Food Lover's Companion |edition=Fourth |publisher=Barron's Educational Series.|isbn=978-0-7641-3577-4 |chapter=alla Carbonara|year=2007}}{{cite book|last1=Labensky|first1=Sarah R.|last2=House|first2=Alan M.|title=On Cooking, Third Edition: Techniques from expert chefs|publisher=Pearson Education, Inc.|year=2003|isbn=0-13-045241-6}} as adding cream makes the dish more stable.{{cite web|url= https://www.mashed.com/1258818/reason-not-to-add-cream-carbonara/|title= Why You Shouldn't Be Adding Cream To Your Carbonara}} {{cite web|url=https://whynow.co.uk/read/dear-dairy-who-put-cream-in-carbonara|author=Louis Thomas|title=Dear Dairy: Who Put Cream in Carbonara?}} Similarly, garlic is found in some recipes, but mostly outside Italy.{{cite web|last=Oliver|first=Jamie|author-link=Jamie Oliver|title=Gennaro's classic spaghetti carbonara|url=http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/gennaro-s-classic-spaghetti-carbonara|year=2016}} Outside Italy, variations on carbonara may include green peas, broccoli, tenderstem broccoli, leeks, onions,Beltramme, Ilaria. Magna Roma - 110 ricette per cucinare a casa i piatti della tradizione romana, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milano, 2011, p. 73. {{ISBN|978-88-04-60723-6}}. other vegetables or mushrooms, and may substitute a meat such as ham or {{lang|it|coppa}} for the fattier guanciale or pancetta.

{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2024}}

A variant is {{lang|it|pasta alla carbonara di mare}}, a seafood dish widespread in Lazio, Tuscany, particularly in Viareggio, and on the Riviera Romagnola.

A product described as carbonara sauce is sold as a ready-to-eat convenience food in grocery stores in many countries. Unlike the original preparation, which is inseparable from its dish as its creamy texture is created on the pasta itself, the ultra-processed versions of carbonara are prepared sauces to be applied onto separately cooked pasta.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUczAQAAQBAJ&q=carbonara+sauce+cream+starch&pg=PA75|title=Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian Way|editor1-last=Zanini De Vita|editor1-first=Oretta|editor2-last=Fant|editor2-first=Maureen B.|page=75|year=2013|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-08243-2|access-date=24 August 2019}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.directionsforme.org/item/10841099Prego%C2%AE |title=Cooking Sauce Carbonara, 15 oz. Jar (Directions For Me) |access-date=2019-08-24 |archive-date=2019-12-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225221041/http://www.directionsforme.org/item/10841099Prego%C2%AE}} They may be thickened with cream and sometimes food starch, and often use bacon or cubed pancetta slices instead of guanciale.

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{{Cookbook-inline|Spaghetti alla Carbonara}}

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{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Buccini |first=Anthony F. |chapter=On Spaghetti alla Carbonara and Related Dishes of Central and Southern Italy |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfP6jHmSLnMC&pg=PT36 |title=Eggs in Cookery: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery 2006 |editor-last=Hosking |editor-first=Richard |publisher=Oxford Symposium |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-903018-54-5 |pages=36–47}}
• {{cite book |last1=Zanini De Vita |first1=Oretta |last2=Fant |first2=Maureen B. |year=2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUczAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 |title=Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian Way |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-08243-2}}

{{Pasta dishes}}

{{Cuisine of Italy}}

Category:Cuisine of Lazio

Category:Spaghetti dishes

Category:Italian sauces