Spaghetti Carbonara Is a Comforting Classic—and Our Recipe Makes It an Easy Weeknight Dinner (2024)

FAQs

Is carbonara a comfort food? ›

Pasta carbonara is the Roman's answer to comfort food. It's composed of a humble trio of ingredients — eggs, cheese and noodles — which, with the elemental magic of heat and water, alchemize to create a glistening bowl of pasta that's as restorative as it is comforting.

Carbonara is a classic Italian pasta dish made with eggs, cheese, pancetta or guanciale (cured pork jowl), and black pepper. Here's why you should prepare it promptly: Texture: The key to a perfect carbonara is achieving a creamy, silky sauce that coats the pasta.

Though the origins of carbonara are not clear, the very first traces of a carbonara recipe date back to the 1940s. Some hypothesize that its birth is linked to the charcoal burners in the Apennines, while others attribute it to American soldiers who arrived in Italy during World War II.

Whisk Like You Mean It

You're using more egg yolks than whites here, which is what makes carbonara so rich and luxurious. But there's still two eggs-worth of whites in there. Whisking your eggs so that the whites are completely incorporated into the yolks will give your sauce a more uniform texture.

Foods like pasta, that triggers the reward system in your brain has been shown to elevate mood and release stress, in the short term of course.

Spaghetti Bolognese is a classic dish that always manages to satiate our cravings and comfort our soul. It's more than just a pasta dish; it's a hearty, fulfilling meal that evokes the kind of gratification that only well-cooked comfort food can provide.

It uses the correct egg to egg yolk ratio

The eggs are whisked with cheese, then tossed with the hot pasta to create the thick, creamy sauce. In order for the sauce to be rich and not sad and watery, it needs the correct ratio of double the number of egg yolks to whole eggs.

The dish is believed to have been first made by an Italian chef in 1944 for American soldiers in Riccione using bacon and eggs rations. “Italian cuisine really is more American than it is Italian,” Grandi told the Financial Times.

As the fat renders, he removes some of the molten liquid with a spoon. The lean part of the meat ultimately caramelises and becomes a sort of "popcorn guanciale": crunchy outside and tender inside. His carbonara is very yellow in colour since he only uses egg yolks – one per 60g of pasta.

Since the name is derived from carbonaro ( lit. 'charcoal burner'), some 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.

What does carbonara mean in Italian slang? ›

History of Spaghetti Carbonara

Carbonara literally means coal miner's wife in Italian. Carbone means coal. Some say the dish was first made as a meal for Italian coal miners. Others say it was originally made over charcoal grills. And then some say it is called carbonara because of the black, freshly milled pepper.

It is said that the pasta alla carbonara was born in 1944 with the arrival of English and American troops on the line between Lazio, Molise and Campania. Soldiers used to make pasta with the ingredients they could find more easily (the eggs and canned bacon they had brought with them).

Because in the traditional recipe there is no garlic, if you add it you will lower quality of a very good food. Why is there no garlic in carbonara? Because it's an Italian dish, not an Italian-American dish, and Italian cooking does not use garlic as heavily as Italian-American cuisine.

What not to put in Spaghetti Carbonara? Don't put garlic, cream, milk or butter. It is not needed. It is fine if you want to make a dish with those ingredients, but if you want to learn how to make this dish correctly, use only pecorino, eggs/egg yolks, black pepper, guanciale, and pasta water.

The three most popular pasta dishes are macaroni and cheese, spaghetti Bolognese and lasagna. For centuries, pasta has been a comfort food.

Lasagna. This Italian classic doesn't require as much explaining as the previous entry. Lasagna hits all the comfort food pleasure points: Pasta, meaty tomato sauce, melty cheese, a crisp layer of cheese on top, all coming together in a rich mouthful that will send you right to the couch after eating.

It's creamy, comforting, easy to prepare and a worthy addition to your dinner repertoire. Fettuccine Alfredo is a rich, comforting classic.

However, pizza has more calories than pasta, 285 in a slice of pizza versus 220 in a cup of cooked pasta. This is attributed to the fact that the fat content in a slice of cheese pizza is much higher – almost 9 grams higher – than in a cup of cooked pasta.