An article claiming the American paternity of carbonara has caused an uproar in Italy and a spike in curiosity in the US. But where is the famous dish really from, and why do people care so much?

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 Edited by | Anna Sam

Food section - CJ journalist 

World – April,9,2023

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    On 23 March, at the same time that Italy had put forward its cuisine as a candidate for Unesco's Intangible Heritage list, the Financial Times published an article in which Italian food expert Alberto Grandi claimed that carbonara was actually invented by Americans living in Italy just after World War Two. The claims in the article created an uproar across Italy. "A surrealist attack!", denounced the agricultural association Coldiretti, while the country weighed into a juicy debate on social media. Why is everyone so passionate about this? And who invented the real carbonara?

"It was a combination of Italian genius and American resources," explains Italian food author Eleonora Cozzella. She spent six years covering National Carbonara Day on 6 April and ended up writing a book called The Perfect Carbonara that won a Gourmand World Cookbook Award in 2020. Its name is tongue-in-cheek since perfection is elusive – and maybe even impossible – in the case of carbonara.

Cozzella interviewed the grandchildren of innkeepers who, in the late 1940s after World War Two, would feed American soldiers in the picturesque neighborhood of Trastevere, just across the river Tiber in Rome. Soldiers were apparently asking for a "spaghetti breakfast": eggs, bacon, and pasta. And at the time, although the country was on its knees, Italians could buy military rations on the black market that included bacon from Americans and egg powder from the British.

The first carbonara recipe was published in the US in 1952. In Vittles and Vice: An Extraordinary Guide to What's Cooking on Chicago's Near North Side, author Patricia Bronté listed the Italian restaurant Armando's – owned by chefs Pietro Lencioni and Armando Lorenzini – among her favorite places. She added the recipe for its signature dish, carbonara. 

Born in America to Italian parents, Lencioni grew up in Tuscany but moved back to the US before turning 18. His carbonara had typical Tuscan, not Roman, ingredients: tagliarini (wide egg tagliatelle from Lucca), Mezzina (a piece of Tuscan bacon), Parmigiano, and eggs. Pietro's wanderings don't help in finding a clear-cut answer on the paternity of this pasta dish.

"No one has a trademark on the recipe," says Alessandro Pipero, chef of the Michelin-starred restaurant Pipero in Rome, who is considered one of the kings of carbonara. "Honestly, I don't care who invented it," he adds.

If we still want to split hairs about the origin of the dish, it should be noted that the first Italian recipe for carbonara was published in August 1954 in La Cucina Italiana magazine. "And it is a strange one," says Cozzella. "It has parsley and even gruyere as cheese! It's as if they had heard about it but didn't know what they were writing about."

 thinks that Italians are too "obsessed" with their origins as they build their identity around a set of indisputable truths about food – truths that are believed to be ancient, hence sacred.

Today, "traditional" carbonara is made with guanciale, pecorino, and egg – and never cream.

"There is no doubt that the identity of the carbonara is Italian," We shouldn't confuse the historical journey – which is made of encounters and exchanges – with identity. Carbonara has changed with time as we all do. Although the dish may have been sparked by an Italian American connection, Cozzella says it would be forced to say that carbonara is American.

And even if carbonara was invented by non-Italians, it is now indisputably Roman. That's because the ingredients are quintessentially Roman. The rigatoni pasta is a classic in other Roman dishes like pasta (calf intestine pasta). The guanciale, thus gently smoking the meat. And the pecorino won out over all the other cheese used in the past for this recipe, lending it its characteristic umami taste.

Recipe for carbonara

INGREDIENTS

1 package (500g) of pasta

8 egg yolks

1 guanciale cheek, diced.

pecorino cheese

black pepper

 

Method

Step 1

Add guanciale to a cast iron frying pan and place on a burner. Fry the guanciale until crispy, rendering out the fat. Collect the melted fat, put it in a bowl, and set aside. (It will give an unmistakable flavor to the dish.)

 

Step 2

In a bowl, add the egg yolks and a small ladle of cold water, and mix well with a whisk. Set aside.

 

Step 3

Fill a pot with water, add salt, then allow to come to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente according to the package instructions.

 

Step 4

Drain the pasta, reserving the cooking water, and put the pasta in the bowl with the egg yolks. Mix, adding small amounts of the reserved cooking water until you've reached your desired consistency. Add the rendered fat and crispy guanciale.

 

Step 5

Finish with ground pepper and pecorino cheese.

 

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