What is the origin of carbonara? Is it considered an Italian dish?

Volker Eichener

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Professor at Hochschule Düsseldorf Oct 13

What is the origin of carbonara? Is it considered an Italian dish?

It is quite a long story.

Let’s start with current recipe. Today, carbonara is made of guanciale, egg yolks, a little pecorino, cooking water (from cooking the pasta) and pepper - nothing else. I personally agree that this is the very best what you can do.

However, the recipe evolved over time, and in Italy recipes have been published which used pancetta, added onions or other vegetables, garlic and, yes, even cream. Adding cream to everything was quite popular in the 1970ies, but, thank God, we have survived this phase.

Now, the origins.

There is a whole family of traditional Italian dishes which are pretty similar. Some of these recipes are documented already in the 19th century:

• alla gricia is pasta with guanciale
• alla amatriciana is with guanciale and tomato
• cacio e pepe is with cheese and pepper
• cacio e uova is with cheese and egg

You see: different combinations of guanciale, cheese and eggs. So, carbonara fits perfectly into this family tree. You may say, carbonara is just a combination of gricia and cacio e uova.

Now, when did the name “carbonara” appear?

In Ada Bonis’ standard cookery book „La Cucina Romana“ from1930, carbonara is not mentioned, so we can fairly assume that this combination of guanciale, eggs and cheese was not known then.

The first mention of „spaghetti alla carbonara“ is documented from 26 July 1950, when the newspaper “La Stampa” wrote that American officers had been looking for this dish in Rome “for a couple of years”. So, we can assume that this dish existed when Rome was taken by American troops in 1944 or shortly afterwards.

It may be the case that the combination of guanciale, egg and cheese had been invented by Domenica Salomone. Domenica was the wife of Federico Salomone who sold charcoal in Vicolo di Montevecchio in Rome while his wife served small dishes in his workshop. So, Domenica really was a “carbonara” (a female charcoal burner). This explains why the dish was named “carbonara”. My Roman friends said that Domenica was inspired by American breakfast (scrambled eggs with bacon) which was eaten by the American soldiers and tried to make a pasta sauce out of it (Romans would never have eggs and bacon for breakfast, so it became a dish for lunch).

Domenica passed the recipe to her daughter Andreina who opened a restaurant named “La Carbonara” on Piazza Campo dei Fiori where it still exists (I have eaten there). Originally, pasta carbonara were made there with penne, not with spaghetti.

Ironically, the first written recipe for pasta carbonara was published in the U.S., in the book „Vittles and Vice: An Extraordinary Guide to What's Cooking on Chicago's Near North Side“ by Patricia Bronté from 1952. However, it can be that Italo-American GIs brought the recipe from Rome to Chicago.

There are no indications that it might have been the other way round. From 1950, many mentions of carbonara appeared it Italy, especially in Rome. The first published Italian recipe appeared in August 1954, in the magazine „La Cucina Italiana“. It was slightly different from the Chicago version (it called for garlic and gruyère cheese!), so we can assume it was independent from the U.S. version.

There is another story by a certain Renato Gualandi who claimed that he had invented pasta carbonara for a meal of American and British troops on 22 September 1944 in Riccione by using eggs from American K-rations. However, this story is not confirmed by historical documents which prove that only English cuisine was served at that dinner. Also, the story has no explanation why it was named after a “carbonara”. So, let’s forget this claim.

To answer the question, as a neutral observer, I would conclude that pasta carbonara originated in Italy, in Rome, to be exact.

Pasta carbonara in ristoranta “La Carbonara”, probably the most authentic version which you can get

EDIT:

Grazie mille for all your comments. I have to write a bit about the cooking process and the ingredients. Since I am cooking spaghetti carbonara myself, I speak from experience:

1. Guanciale is from the cheeks, so it is very fatty. This is the secret of the taste of carbonara. The oldest known recipes used pancetta from the belly, which is also okay if you cannot get guanciale. It is second best.
2. Searing the guanciale (or pancetta) is a crucial process. Some of the fat must be melted, so that the sauce will be a combination of molten fat, egg yolk, pecorino and cooking water. Melting takes a couple of minutes, depending on the temperature of the pan. If the temperature is high and you sear it for a longer time then the guanciale will get brown and crispy, with roasting flavours which can get bitter if you sear too long. If you sear with moderate temperature the guanciale will stay light and soft, with a wonderful texture, and with less roasting flavours. I prefer the latter version, it is more typical. So, sear at moderate temperature until golden, not brown. And, yes, the size of the cubes matters. I prefer rather big cubes (1 cm) for texture. If browned perfectly the cube will explode in your mouth!
3. The pasta. In my view, the type of pasta is not very important, as long as they are cooked al dente. Actually, I prefer thicker pasta like linguine or bavette over spaghetti because the texture is better.
4. Salt. The guanciale (or pancetta) has enough salt. So, do not add salt. You will have to add cooking water, so do not put too much salt into the cooking water. I put about a heaped teaspoon of salt into my pot and this is sufficient.
5. Eggs. You may use whole eggs. But you get the best results if you use the yolks only, two yolks per person. This is luxury. Use the egg whites to bake pavlova. Or to make pisco sour.
6. Cheese. Some recipes call for parmigiano, others for pecorino, others for a combination of both. I prefer pecorino (you may sprinkle the dish with parmigiano), but I use just a tiny amount (about a tablespoon of grated pecorino for two persons). You won’t make mac and cheese!
7. Pepper. You may use pepper generously. I prefer black pepper, also because it looks nice with all the tiny spots on the pasta.
8. Temperature. This is the most difficult part. You do want the egg yolks raw, but you don’t want to get scrambled eggs. I start searing the guanciale early and take the pan from the oven to let it cool down a bit - this is the most important part of the cooking process! Of course, it depends on the type of pan you use how much time you need for cooling. Then the cooked pasta are put into the pan (alternatively, you can empty the pan into a bowl with cooked pasta). Then you add egg yolks, which have been beaten together with the grated cheese and a bit of cooking water and you immediately stir the whole thing. Maybe you need several trials until you find out the right method with your specific cooking utensils.
9. The hidden secret. The secret for the creaminess of the sauce is the cooking water. The cooking water contains starch from the pasta and a little salt (not too much, see above). When stirring the egg-cheese mass, you add a little bit of cooking water, stirring constantly, until you get the desired consistency. The pasta will soak up a bit of the water, this is why it is so important to cook them al dente (if in doubt, better cook less than more)! And therefore it is so important to serve the dish immediately!