However many people that enjoy the dish do not realize the origins of the dish nor how it should be properly cooked.
Being a traditional dish many people think that Spaghetti Carbonara is hundreds of years old but its genesis is as recent as the mid 1940's. At the end of World War II allied troops that were liberating towns and villages in Italy and had to stop and eat at the end of each day. Many of these locations were desperately short of food often only having pasta to survive on. The allied troops however were often very well provisioned and being kind hearted shared what they had in their rucksacks.
One one occasion troops billeted in a small village added their tin of ham and powdered eggs to a bowl of hot pasta to create a meal for all involved and so Spaghetti Carbonara was born.
It is often served with a cream sauce but this is not traditional. The proper way to serve Carbonara is to take an egg yolk and beat into this a little pepper and salt and place in to a metal bowl. To this is added hot spaghetti and then mixed so that the egg covers the hot pasta and is cooked by the heat from the pasta. Bacon is then added to the top of this and served quickly.
Ideally the egg is still cooking as it is served at the table making for a very subtle yet filling dish.
Regrettably there are few places that serve the dish properly but I am fortunate to have a friend that not only owns an Italian restaurant but also has an Italian chef as an adviser so the dishes are all served correctly and in the traditional manner. They even have the correct wines from the right areas as a matching
Think it's time for a pasta night
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