Once upon a time there was a country who loved good cooking.
Once upon a time in that country, there was a city named Rome.
Gladiators, Colosseum, ancient ruins...but one thing only pleased every tummy.
That was...the Carbonara.
One day a kid asked to an old man:"How was the carbonara born?"
The old man thought about it, and then he told this story.
"When there was war, we didn't have a thing to eat. There were no markets, we were poor and hungry, we ate what we found, and if we found nothing...well, we didn't eat.
It was a dark period.
Then, one day the freedom came.
From the south, the Sicily, the troops arrived. They were handsome young boys, tall, and strong, the Americans.
They took with them things new to us needy italians.
Get this, that day I had my first chewing gum!
But they also had a kind of meat, they called it bacon...and so many eggs we thought it was Easter!
My mother told me that one day a soldier, still confused by the time zone, wanted to have breakfast while we were having dinner. He said that overseas they had bacon and eggs early in the morning, for breakfast.
But what did we have?
Surely pasta, and Pecorino cheese, and some pepper too.
So that evening a weird mix happened.
The camp cook spilled the soldier's breakfast in the pasta, and that was the Carbonara, with a light coating of Pecorino cheese and pepper as dark as charcoal.*
We don't know anything about that soldier's dinner, but one thing is certain, we never forgot the carbonara".
*In Italian charcoal is called: "Carbone". So this is why it's called "Carbonara".
Recipe for two.
200 gr Spaghetti or Bucatini ( or if you want to use a short pasta you can use Rigatoni )
2 eggs
A lot of grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese ( the original recipe uses pecorino )
Pepper
Bacon (Pancetta or Guanciale)
It's 'a recipe very easy to make.
Cook pasta in boiling, salted water.
While pasta is cooking, sauté the bacon in a pan with oil.
It's important that the pasta is "al dente"-> "cooked to be firm to the bite, to the tooth"
When pasta is ready, add it in to the pan with the bacon, add the eggs, pepper and pecorino cheese and mix it all together.
Add another sprinkle of cheese... because life is too short to do the diet and we're not doing the soup!
Buon appetito!
