The carbonara conundrum

How to create a rich, silky sauce (without cream)

The cream […] adds softness, envelopes the pasta and blends with the other ingredients to achieve the smoothness that has come to be considered fundamental to a good carbonara. Now that cream has fallen from grace, it takes more effort to recreate the same effect […]

– Luca Cesari

When Luca Cesari’s much-debated book* about the history of pasta arrived, I cut straight to the carbonara chapter. And anyone else who’s been eschewing cream or breaking out in an anxious sweat when scanning carbonara sauce for the slightest tell-tale grain of cooked egg, might like to read it too.

In an uncanny coincidence, a German dish called Schinkennudeln came up on a call that same week. And the reason this is relevant is that Schinkennudeln look like what carbonara might have looked like pre-1960, that is, the eggs are very much scrambled – and it is 100 percent intentional.

According to Cesari’s research, it was in the ’60s that carbonara was included in two major Italian cookbooks. And, crucially, it was the first time two key ingredients were specified: guanciale (cured pork cheek) and cream, which was formative in defining the texture as we know it today.

From then on, he writes, the use of cream gathered momentum into the ’80s, a decade he describes as a ‘dark era’ for purists. Previously (by his account) it seemed like a fairly open brief in terms of cured meat and the eggs were fully cooked, making carbonara really dry.

Schinkennudeln is nursery food, something a loving caregiver might cook having worked out that pasta will be well received and this is a way of serving up carbs and protein pronto. In a sense it’s like scrambled egg and bacon, but with noodles (not toast), and ham (not bacon).

With both factors compounding the legitimacy of scrambled-egg-pasta, I cooked Schinkennudeln, using a splash of salted pasta water, a light touch to ensure creamy curds of egg folded through the noodles, and crisped, crumbled South Tyrolean Speck as a bridge between Italy and Germany.

It was good, it was what I was aiming for, but it underlined why carbonara is very, very special: the umami; the saltiness; the rich, silky sauce. It remains one of Brandon’s all-time favourites, perhaps even his last supper, and we definitely have a special interest in the making of it.

The chef who showed us how to make carbonara with care so it hit all the notes mentioned above, was Andrea Volpe. Watching him make it illustrated a few ‘magic trick moments’ as Brandon likes to call them – when chefs do things without thinking and end up pulling rabbits out of hats.

In this case, he casually lobbed a tablespoon of glistening guanciale fat into the egg and cheese mix, without considering it important enough to mention. And right there was the coin going up the sleeve, a culinary sleight-of-hand that takes cooking and food to the next level.

There were others too, but the second to stand out was how he approached the egg mixture like a custard: cooking it gently until it thickened just enough to become a sauce. What this does is to eliminate any chance of a raw-egg taste and consolidate the creamy texture carbonara is known for.

Here are the five key moves:

1. Use egg yolks instead of whole eggs

2. Add the rendered guanciale fat

3. Cook the sauce over steam or in a double boiler

4. Add some pasta cooking water to the sauce

5. Add guanciale at the end for a crisp contrast

The pages in the book titled ‘Adding a spoonful of science’ go beyond ‘a spoonful of guanciale fat’ to tick all of the above. And while a seasoned restaurant chef like Andrea may work by feel, it also offers precise temperatures for anyone who (like us) enjoys pulling out a thermometer.

When using yolks as Andrea does, Cesari writes that ‘to obtain that coveted creaminess, you should stay under 65°C. Otherwise, you will end up with scrambled eggs on your pasta, the effect now considered most execrable’. Though a glass half full view might be to embrace it as well-made Schinkennudlen.

*A Brief History of Pasta: The Italian Food that Shaped the World by Luca Cesari (London: Profile Books, 2022)

For a detailed description of how to cook carbonara and a blow-by-blow account of the method with pictures, click on the link below.

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