Here in Italy, it's usually a combination of rice and corn. In pasta types like spaghetti, you can't really tell the difference, but you do end up missing the delicious starchiness of real pasta. At least, I do.
Chortle, it sounds *wonderful* and I will try it. But I cannot eat any grains, so it will be served incorrectly on ribbons of zucchini.
Here is my first husband's family recipe for Carbonara. It is revisionist because of the parsley, and because his cook in Rome insisted on including one sweet onion per diner.
I was surprised to see that John's recipe includes pecorino instead of parmesan. chacun à son goût! and there is plenty of room in the Big Tent of Delicious Italian Foods for more than one type of Carbonara.
The Ambassador’s Carbonara
My first husband was the son of an American diplomat. Their cook in Rome originally taught the family this recipe, when my ex-husband was a child. It became one of their most beloved family meals. Even when the father had become US Ambassador (sequentially) to a bunch of countries in Africa, they would prepare it on the cook’s day off.
Carbonara is Miner’s Pasta: it was originally a recipe Italian miners would make. It's on menus with cream in it all the time here in America, although that is considered revisionist in Italy.
The addition of parsley makes for a fresh note in the smoky, savory bacon, egg and cheese mixture.
Ingredients:
One fresh egg per person, and one extra for the pot.
Two or three slices of bacon per person, chopped small
One medium Vidalia onion per person, chopped fine
A handful of parsley, stems removed, chopped fine
Cracked black pepper to taste
Aged Grana Parmesan cheese grated on the top
Pasta cooked al dente to serve your family and guests.
Method:
Put the chopped bacon and onion into a heavy skillet with a thick bottom, preferably cast iron or enamel over cast iron.
Initially put the heat on medium-high, to render the bacon fat. Stir and fry the onion and bacon on medium-high until the onion begins to pick up brown edges.
Reduce the heat and cook until the onion is a uniform brown color, the color of brown paper bags. Stir frequently, or the bacon and onion mixture will stick and burn. The onion will be indistinguishable from the bacon in a seething brown mixture when it is done.
Add parsley about three minutes before transferring the bacon and onion mixture onto the pasta.
While the pasta is cooking, break eggs and beat lightly in a separate container.
Once the pasta is cooked, drained and placed into the serving bowl, pour in the raw egg mixture and stir vigorously to heat the eggs thoroughly.
Then put in the hot bacon, parsley and onion mixture, including the bacon fat, and stir vigorously again. The egg should cook to a soft curdle from the hot pasta and the hot bacon-onion mixture.
Grate Parmesan cheese over the top. With a salad, this is a feast.
Hi Stacey, I sent an email to you yesterday at Stacey Eskelin @ Cappuccino and am wondering if you received it. If that address doesn't work for email, can you suggest a way for me to resend successfully? Many thanks, Kirtland Snyder
That sounds DELICIOUS, Caroline. I would totally eat that. And I happen to love the taste of onion in this kind of recipe. Italians will disown you, of course. Sweet Jesus, are they pains in the ass about adding things to "sacred" dishes. But ... I do it anyway because I'm BAD.
I was going to ask about the spaghetti -- what is the gluten free actually made of?
Here in Italy, it's usually a combination of rice and corn. In pasta types like spaghetti, you can't really tell the difference, but you do end up missing the delicious starchiness of real pasta. At least, I do.
it's often made of rice.
(I am not celiac, I cannot digest simple carbs, so I serve Carbonara on zucchini ribbons, distressingly and sadly.....)
Chortle, it sounds *wonderful* and I will try it. But I cannot eat any grains, so it will be served incorrectly on ribbons of zucchini.
Here is my first husband's family recipe for Carbonara. It is revisionist because of the parsley, and because his cook in Rome insisted on including one sweet onion per diner.
I was surprised to see that John's recipe includes pecorino instead of parmesan. chacun à son goût! and there is plenty of room in the Big Tent of Delicious Italian Foods for more than one type of Carbonara.
The Ambassador’s Carbonara
My first husband was the son of an American diplomat. Their cook in Rome originally taught the family this recipe, when my ex-husband was a child. It became one of their most beloved family meals. Even when the father had become US Ambassador (sequentially) to a bunch of countries in Africa, they would prepare it on the cook’s day off.
Carbonara is Miner’s Pasta: it was originally a recipe Italian miners would make. It's on menus with cream in it all the time here in America, although that is considered revisionist in Italy.
The addition of parsley makes for a fresh note in the smoky, savory bacon, egg and cheese mixture.
Ingredients:
One fresh egg per person, and one extra for the pot.
Two or three slices of bacon per person, chopped small
One medium Vidalia onion per person, chopped fine
A handful of parsley, stems removed, chopped fine
Cracked black pepper to taste
Aged Grana Parmesan cheese grated on the top
Pasta cooked al dente to serve your family and guests.
Method:
Put the chopped bacon and onion into a heavy skillet with a thick bottom, preferably cast iron or enamel over cast iron.
Initially put the heat on medium-high, to render the bacon fat. Stir and fry the onion and bacon on medium-high until the onion begins to pick up brown edges.
Reduce the heat and cook until the onion is a uniform brown color, the color of brown paper bags. Stir frequently, or the bacon and onion mixture will stick and burn. The onion will be indistinguishable from the bacon in a seething brown mixture when it is done.
Add parsley about three minutes before transferring the bacon and onion mixture onto the pasta.
While the pasta is cooking, break eggs and beat lightly in a separate container.
Once the pasta is cooked, drained and placed into the serving bowl, pour in the raw egg mixture and stir vigorously to heat the eggs thoroughly.
Then put in the hot bacon, parsley and onion mixture, including the bacon fat, and stir vigorously again. The egg should cook to a soft curdle from the hot pasta and the hot bacon-onion mixture.
Grate Parmesan cheese over the top. With a salad, this is a feast.
Hi Stacey, I sent an email to you yesterday at Stacey Eskelin @ Cappuccino and am wondering if you received it. If that address doesn't work for email, can you suggest a way for me to resend successfully? Many thanks, Kirtland Snyder
Let me go look for it! I'll let you know.
Thanks!
Found it?
That sounds DELICIOUS, Caroline. I would totally eat that. And I happen to love the taste of onion in this kind of recipe. Italians will disown you, of course. Sweet Jesus, are they pains in the ass about adding things to "sacred" dishes. But ... I do it anyway because I'm BAD.