How to Make SPAGHETTI CARBONARA (Approved by Romans)

(Vincenzo speaks Italian) - Hello and welcome to, - Vincenzo's plate - Oh yes, today we are in Rome. - Rome. - The capital of Italy, the eternal city. One of the most beautiful cities on the planet, huh? - Yes - Paola is a true Roman who loves the pasta that you love. The pasta that comes from Rome. What pasta is it? - Carbonara - Carbonara pasta. It comes from Rome and today we want to show you how to

make

authentic

carbonara

. We are at the Hotel Marcella Royal in the city of Rome. From this terrace we can see San Pedro, not far from the Colosseum, not far from the Spanish Steps.

Beautiful terrace, beautiful room and beautiful Romans working here. - (laughs) Thank you - And today I have pressure, I am under pressure. I'm cooking

carbonara

for Paola and the members of Marcella Royal. Paola (speaks Italian) - Yes, you should. (laughs) - (laughs) I'm scared but I'm showing you how to

make

the perfect authentic carbonara that you can make again for your friends. Okay carbonara, an important rule. Never, never, never put cream. You know why? You go to the restaurant and they put cream on you because carbonara is a dish that has to be cooked, served and eaten immediately.

If you wait too long before eating, it will stick. So the cream prevents that. The chef finds it easier to do it with cream. It's a no, no, carbonara with cream. Please don't make carbonara with cream. Well, the first thing you need to do for this recipe is cook the pasta. Get a big pot like this, put some water in there and then you'll need a good amount of rock salt. Look at that, good amount of rock salt. Oh wow. Now the question is what pasta am I using for the carbonara? Well,

spaghetti

. Spaghetti is the classic pasta used for carbonara.

They are dry

spaghetti

, but I have chosen a spaghettoni, a large size spaghetti. I think it absorbs the eggs better. Another pasta you can use is rigatoni. Oh, I've also seen some chefs use paccheri. Avoid other pastas, no penne, no fusilli, no egg pasta. And don't use tagliatelle, pappardelle. It just doesn't go well with carbonara. Carbonara likes spaghetti, okay. So I'm cooking the spaghetti, because you have to cook it for about eleven minutes. Always read the package with the spaghetti and see you soon, babies. See you very soon, okay. Ok, once the pasta is boiling, what do you do?

You get the guanciale. This is guanciale, pig's cheek. It's a beautiful piece of meat. He is cured. How do you say this, huh? - Cured. - Cured and basically, to cure this the flavors that you put inside are garlic, sage and rosemary. Cured for a few months and you get a nice strong flavor. You get enough fat in there to get the nice oily oil you need in the pan and beautiful, flavorful meat. If you can't find guanciale, pork cheek, use pancetta which is pork belly and again it is cured. If you use bacon, it doesn't work because the bacon is smoked, so you get a different flavor and it doesn't give you the true carbonara flavor.

Normally you shouldn't be able to find it with the skin but we are in Rome and that's how they serve it to you. So we cut the skin, okay. There we go, and then we want to cut the guanciale like this, nice and thin because once the guanciale is thin it is easier to cut it. So I'm cooking 300 grams of spaghetti for three people and I'm using 150 grams of guanciale, about 50 grams per person. Look how pretty it is and how delicious it smells. Look, I'm cutting the guanciale to this size. Well then the pasta is cooking, we cut the guanciale, now we need to cook the guanciale.

So, we put the lid on medium heat, you put the pan on top and then you start adding the guanciale inside so that when the pan is still cold, it's good. Don't let the pan get too hot. And what we do is bring the pan to temperature and then we cook the guanciale slowly. We cook it slowly because we don't want the guanciale to burn. If you burn the guanciale, the carbonara will not taste good. Yes, you want the crunchy guanciale but you also want the tender guanciale in the middle. Now, this fat that you see will turn into oil very soon.

Then this fat will turn into oil and that oil is what gives the carbonara its flavor. Look it's cooking slowly. Look at the oil there, look at the oil that comes out. I slowly cook the guanciale so that the meat is more relaxed and the oil comes out little by little. Can you see the oil there? You can see it? Sometimes you may want to add a little extra virgin olive oil. Not all the time. Sometimes I like to add it, but look, we have a top quality Roman guanciale. Look how much oil we already have and it's still cooking.

Now here we are going to make the sauce. The cream for the carbonara. I'm using four eggs. So I normally use, personally, one egg per 100 grams of pasta, okay, which is more or less for one person. So, one egg per person, I'm making three hundred grams of pasta, that's three eggs plus one extra egg. I always add an extra egg on top. This is how I do it. In Rome the question is, do you use the whole egg or just the yolk? Who knows which one is right? Some Romans say only the yolk. Some Romans say that we use the whole egg because in the old days it was not wasted.

You use the whole egg. Why would you delete the rest? Nowadays, most chefs like to use just yolks, but I'm using the old way. Then we break the egg and make the cream, the carbonara cream. One egg, two eggs, three eggs and the fourth egg are here. MMM. And then we mix it with a fork. Nice red color, beautiful organic eggs and now we're going to add pecorino cheese. Now the question is, is pecorino a cheese that I can find anywhere? If you can. Grate your pecorino, that's the classic way. Pecorino is very strong, you don't need to add salt because the salt is there.

Nowadays, yes, you can use parmesan cheese, you can mix it with parmesan. I like parmesan, I like it mixed. It's up to you, but again we are making the original recipe and I am using 200 grams of pecorino cheese. Okay, now put the pecorino into the mixture. MMM. And a lot of pepper, the Romans love pepper. If you don't add pepper to the carbonara, my Roman friends won't be happy. We add a lot of pepper and now we mix. Now I want to make a cream out of this. Look how creamy it is, look. That's why you want to use the whole egg.

Look at this, look how rich and creamy it is. It is a carbonara cream that is made with four eggs and a lot of pecorino cheese. So the guanciale is ready, the oil is there. We turn off, it is very important that you turn this off. But we want to keep the pan very hot. The pasta is ready on this side. Look, the pasta has been boiling for eleven minutes and now we want to take the pasta and put it in there. Oh yeah baby. And look what happens when you mix water with pasta. You want a little bit of water because the pasta water helps make the sauce.

Now the pasta should rest for about twenty seconds. We want to bring a little more water here, like a tablespoon full of pasta water and we put it in there with the eggs. And this is what is happening now. I'm mixing the cream. Now the water, the pasta water helps combine the ingredients. The parmesan will cover the smell of eggs. Watch this. So, what can we do now? He turns the stove on again, very, very low. Very low, you can't make mistakes now. Very low. Add more pasta water in there, okay. So we have the pasta water at the bottom.

Very, very low and now is the time where I'm adding the cream. Look what's happening now guys, this is a $1 million opportunity. Look at this, Suzanne, look at this. Do you see this cream? This wonderful cream now needs to be mixed. But you want to be quick. You don't want to create scrambled eggs, okay, no scrambled eggs. Mix it quickly. The water will help prevent the scrambled eggs from forming, but look how creamy it is. Suzanne, look how creamy this is. Look how creamy the carbonara is. Keep mixing it and the reason we have the simmer lid is because when we see this soup turn into cream, we know we're ready to serve.

Over here guys. - What is the trick so that it is not mixed? - Well, you put the water at the bottom. I added water just before adding the cream. So can you see I'm still mixing it up here? You can see? Can you see that the pasta was delicious and al dente? Can you see I don't have any revolts there? You can see? - Yes - Do I have a lot of cream? I didn't use any cream, Suzanne. All this is natural. Eggs, water, pecorino cheese and pepper. So look, do you think it's ready to serve?

Are we ready to serve? - Almost. - Huh? Check it out. Look how fantastic this is. Can you see the background here now? Can you see we have little bits of picorino in there? - MMM. - Yes I know. Do you know what this means? One more minute and we can serve this rich, delicious carbonara. (speaking Italian) Turn it off now, turn it off. Look how creamy this is. Look at that, but now this pasta must be served immediately, guys. Look how creamy this is, Paola. Look, this carbonara is Paola. Look how creamy this carbonara is. - It seems perfect. - Oh look at that, put more cream on top.

Yum Yum. Finish with pepper. Perfect. (speaks Italian) - An authentic carbonara - We're in Rome, wow. - Very good - And now it's time to serve the carbonara to the director. The director of the Hotel Marcella Royal. (speaking Italian) - Thank you Vincenzo. (speaking Italian) - Pepper, a lot of pepper. Do you like pecorino better? - Yes. - More spicy? - Yes. - Wow. Let's see if I can sleep here tonight. - (laughs) Otherwise under the bridge. - MMM. - MMM. Delicious. - Approved? - Yeah! - Hurrah. Creamy, tasty. - Hmm. (speaking Italian) - Oh, thank you, thank you Paola. - You can sleep here (laughs). - Hurrah!

Okay, I need to test this to make sure it's actually good. Oh, add a little more pepper, yes. Creamy. Hmm. Hmm. Creamy, smooth, add more pepper, add more pecorino cheese, go crazy. It's a nice, rich paste, so make love to it. This is how to make a fantastic Romana-

approved

carbonara. Approved? - Approved - Yes, yes, thumbs up? Fantastic. - Fantastic. - Thank you very much for watching this episode of the Marcella Royal Hotel here in Rome. The best place to be in Rome. - Thank you. - See you in the next video recipe. And now mangia! - Vincenzo's plate. - Carbonara

approved

by the Romans. (trumpet music)