(Vincenzo speaking Italian)
- Hi and welcome to,
- Vincenzo's Plate
- Oh yeah, today we are in Rome.
- [Paola] Roma.
- The capital of Italy, the eternal city.
One of the most beautiful
cities on the planet, huh?
- Yes
- Paola is a truly Roman who
loves the pasta that you love.
The pasta that comes from Rome.
What pasta is it?
- [Paola] Carbonara
- Pasta carbonara.
It comes from Rome and today
we want to show you how
to make the real carbonara.
We are at Hotel Marcella
Royal in the city of Rome.
From this terrace we can St. Peter's,
not far from the Colosseum,
not far from the Spanish steps.
Beautiful terrace, beautiful room
and beautiful Roman people working here.
- (laughs) Thank you
- And today I have the
pressure, I am under pressure.
I'm cooking carbonara for Paola
and the members of the Marcella Royal.
Paola (speaking Italian)
- Yes you should. (laughs)
- (laughs) I am scared but I'm showing you
how to make the authentic
perfect carbonara
that you can make again for your friends.
Okay carbonara, an important rule.
Never, never, never put cream.
DO you know why?
You go to the restaurant
and they put cream
because carbonara is a dish
that you need to cook, serve
and eat straight away.
If you wait too long before
you eat it gets stuck together.
So the cream avoids that.
It's easier for the chef
to make it with the cream.
It's a no no, carbonara with cream.
Please don't make carbonara with cream.
Okay the first thing to do
for this recipe is you want
to cook the pasta.
Get a large pot like this one,
put a little water in there
and then you need a nice
amount of rock salt.
Look at that, nice amount of rock salt.
Ooh, wow.
Now the question is what pasta
am I using for carbonara.
Well, spaghetti.
Spaghetti is the classic pasta
that you use for carbonara.
It's a dry spaghetti, but
I've chosen a spaghettoni,
a big size of spaghetti.
I think it absorbs the eggs better.
Another pasta you can use is rigatoni.
Oh I've seen some chefs
using paccheri as well.
Avoid other pastas, no
penne, don't use fusilli,
don't use egg pasta.
And don't use tagliatelle, pappardelle.
Just doesn't go well with the carbonara.
The carbonara likes spaghetti, okay.
So I'm cooking the spaghetti, for,
this needs to be cook
for about eleven minutes.
Always read the packet with the spaghetti,
and see you soon babies.
See you very soon, okay.
Okay, so once the pasta
is boiling, what you do?
You get the guanciale.
This is guanciale, pig cheek.
It's a beautiful piece of meat.
It's cured.
How you say this, eh?
- [Woman] Cured.
- Cured and you basically,
to cure this the flavors you
put inside are garlic, sage and rosemary.
Cured for a few months
and you get a beautiful strong flavor.
You get enough fat in there
to give you the nice oily oil
that you need in the pan
and beautiful tasty meat.
If you can't find guanciale,
pig cheek, use pancetta
which is the pork belly
and again it's cured.
If you use bacon, it doesn't
work because bacon is smoked,
so you get a different flavor
and it doesn't give you
the real carbonara flavor.
Usually you should be able
not to find 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
'cause once the guanciale's
thin it's 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 beautiful this is
and how amazing it smells.
See, I'm cutting the guanciale this size.
Okay so the pasta is cooking,
we cut the guanciale,
now we need to cook the guanciale.
So, we turn the cook top on a medium heat,
you put the pan on top and then you want
to start adding the guanciale inside
so when the pan is still cold okay.
You don't the pan to be too hot.
And what we do is we bring
the pan to temperature
and then we cook the guanciale slowly.
We cook it slowly because we don't want
to burn the guanciale.
If you burn the guanciale,
the carbonara is not gonna taste nice.
Yes, you want the guanciale crispy
but you also want the
guanciale tender in the middle.
Now this, this fat
that you see is gonna
be coming oil very soon.
So this fat will turn into oil
and that oil is what gives
the flavor to the carbonara.
See it's slowly cooking.
Look at the oil over there,
look at the oil coming out.
I'm slowly cooking the guanciale
so the meat is more relaxed
and the oil comes out slowly, slowly.
Can you see the oil over there?
Can you see it?
Sometimes you might
want to add a little bit
of 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 have
already and it's still cooking.
Now over here we're
going to make the sauce.
The cream for the carbonara.
I'm using four eggs.
So I normally use, personally me, one egg
for 100 grams of pasta, okay,
which is pretty much for one person.
So one egg one person,
I'm making three hundred grams of pasta
so three eggs plus an extra egg.
I always add an extra egg on top.
That's how I do it.
In Rome the question is,
do you use the entire egg
or you only use the yolk?
Who knows which one is right?
Some Romans say only the yolk.
Some Romans say we use the entire egg
because in the old days
there was no wastage.
You use the whole egg.
Why would you through away the rest?
In the modern days, most
of the chefs they like
to use only yolks, but I'm
using the old fashion way.
So we break the egg
and we make the cream for
us, the carbonara cream.
One egg,
two eggs,
three eggs,
and the fourth egg is here.
Yum.
And then we mix it with a fork.
Nice red color, beautiful organic eggs
and now we are going to add pecorino.
Now the question is,
is pecorino a cheese I can find anywhere?
Yes, you can.
Grate your pecorino,
that's the classic way.
pecorino is very strong, you
don't need to add any salt
because the salt is there.
In the modern days yes, you
can use Parmesan cheese,
you can mix it with Parmesan.
I like Parmesan, I like
it when it's mixed.
It's up to you, but again
we're doing the original recipe
and I'm using 200 grams of pecorino.
Okay, so now put the pecorino in the mix.
Yum.
And a lot of pepper,
Romans love the pepper.
If you don't put pepper
in the carbonara my Roman
friends are not gonna be happy.
Got plenty of pepper and now we mix.
So now I want to get a cream out of this.
Look how creamy it is already, look.
That's why you wanna use the entire egg.
Look at this, look how
nice and creamy this is.
This is a carbonara cream
that you get with four eggs
and a lot of pecorino.
So the guanciale is
ready, the oil is there.
We switch off, it's very
important you switch off this.
But we want to keep the pan nice and hot.
The pasta is ready on this side.
See the pasta is been
boiling for eleven minutes
and now we want to take the
pasta and put it in there.
Oh yes, baby.
And look what's happening
when you mix water
with the pasta.
You want some water in there
because the pasta water
helps to make the sauce.
Now the pasta needs to sit
for about twenty seconds.
We want to get here some more water,
about one full spoon 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
to combine the ingredients together.
The parmigiano will
cover the smell of eggs.
Look at this.
Now what do we do now?
Turn on the cooktop 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 moment
where I'm adding the cream.
Look what's happening now guys,
this is a $1 million shot.
Look at this, Suzanne, look at this.
See this cream?
This wonderful cream now needs to mix.
But you wanna be fast.
You don't want to create
scrambled eggs, okay,
no scrambled eggs.
Mix it fast.
The water will help not to
create the scrambled eggs
but look how creamy this is.
Suzanne, look how creamy this is.
Look how creamy the carbonara is.
Keep mixing it and the reason
why we have the cook top on low is
because when we see that
this soup becomes cream,
we know we're ready to serve okay.
This way guys.
- What's the trick
to making it not scrambled?
- [Vincenzo] Well you put
the water at the bottom.
I put water just before
I'm adding the cream.
So can you see I'm still mixing it here.
Can you see?
Can you see the pasta
was nice and al dente.
Can you see I have no scrambles in there?
Can you see?
- Yes
- [Vincenzo] I have plenty of cream?
I didn't use any cream, Suzanne.
This is all natural.
Eggs, water, pecorino cheese, and pepper.
So look, you think it's ready to serve?
We're ready to serve?
- [Suzanne] Almost.
- [Vincenzo] Huh?
Look at that.
Look how fantastic this is.
Can you see now the bottom here,
can you see we have little
pieces of picorino over there.
- [Suzanne] Yum.
- [Vincenzo] Yeah, I know.
You know what this means?
One more minute and we can serve
this yummy yummy carbonara.
(speaking Italian)
Switch off now, switch it off.
Look how creamy this is.
Look at that, but now this pasta
you need to serve it straight away guys.
Look how creamy this is, Paola.
Look how this carbonara is Paola.
Look how creamy this carbonara is.
- [Paola] Looks perfect.
- [Vincenzo] Oh look at
that, put more cream on top.
Yum yum.
Finish it off with pepper.
Perfect.
(speaking Italian)
- A real carbonara
- We're in Rome, oh wow.
- Very good
- And now is the moment
to serve the carbonara
to the director.
The director of the Hotel Marcella Royal.
(speaking Italian)
- Thank you Vincenzo.(speaking Italian)
- [Vincenzo] Pepper, lots of pepper.
You like more pecorino?
- Yes.
- [Vincenzo] More picorino?
- Yes.
- Whoa.
Lets see if I can sleep here tonight.
- (laughs) Otherwise under the bridge.
- Mmmm.
- Mmmm.
Delicious.
- Approved?
- Yes!
- Yay.
Creamy, tasty.
- Mmm.
(speaking Italian)
- Oh thank you, thank you Paola.
- You can sleep here (laughter).
- Yay!
Okay so need to try this
make sure really is good.
Ah, put a little bit more pepper yeah.
Creamy.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Creamy, soft, add more pepper,
add more pecorino, be crazy.
It's a nice rich pasta
so make love with it.
Now this is how you make
a fantastic carbonara
approved by Romana.
Approved?
- Approved
- Yeah yeah thumbs up?
Fantastic.
- Fantastic.
- So thank you so much
watching this episode
from Marcella Royal Hotel here in Roma.
Best place to be in Rome.
- Thank you.
- We'll see you in the next video recipe.
E ora si mangia!
- Vincenzo's Plate.
- Carbonara approved by Romans.
(trumpet music)
