FoodBlog Masterclass: Making the Perfect Carbonara 🤩🐷
Last February, in collaboration with The Mediterranean Culinary Academy and Zero Sei Trattoria Romana, we had our very first cooking masterclass! If you missed it, don’t worry, we’re here to give you a step-by-step guide to making a perfect carbonara. 👌
We learned from the great Fausto Soldini himself - owner of Zero Sei Trattoria Romana in Malta, as well as Sotto, Casa Sotto, and Prosciutteria - so you just know that this is the real deal. 😎
Step 1: Make sure you have the right ingredients
To make an authentic carbonara, you will need:
- 1 egg per person (+ another egg, so if you’re 2 people, you will need 3 eggs)
- Approx. 40g guanciale per person
- Approx. 30g pecorino romano per person
- Freshly ground pepper
If you want more guanciale, add more guanciale. If you want more pecorino, add more pecorino. It’s up to your taste, really. You can opt for pancetta if you don’t find guanciale. 🐽
Step 2: Bring a pot of water to a boil
This is a “background process”, so don’t cook your pasta before everything else, but start bringing the water to a boil and continue with the next steps until you can add your pasta to the water. ✌️
Make sure to cook the pasta al dente - it usually takes around 7 minutes, but some pasta types may take longer! 🍝
Step 3: Chop up your guanciale
Chop the guanciale in a way that you will have both meaty parts and fatty parts in one piece - the fat is very useful! It might not be the healthiest ingredient, but it has tonnes of flavour. 🤤
Step 4: Heat up your pan on the stove
We need a hot pan to work with here. Put a pan on the stove and let it heat up until, when you drag a piece of guanciale on the pan, it starts to smoke a bit. 🤩
Step 5: Cook your guanciale until slightly crispy, but not burnt
Once that piece of guanciale starts to smoke, put the rest of your guanciale in the pan and let it cook until the fat has rendered (you will see a nice, shiny transparent liquid sizzling in your pan). Once the meat is cooked, switch off the heat. 🔥
Step 6: Grate the pecorino romano, whisk eggs and mix together with pepper
Finely grate your pecorino romano in a bowl (a fine grate will make it easier for the cheese to combine with the rest of the ingredients), whisk the eggs in another bowl, and then add the pecorino to the egg mixture. You will also need to add your freshly ground pepper here. 🧀
Step 7: Add some pasta water to the egg mixture
To “kill off” any bacteria that may be in the eggs, we add just a bit of hot pasta water to the egg mixture (maybe half a ladle - but if you see that you need more, go ahead and add more). This will also make the mixture creamy and beautiful! 😋
Step 8: Drain your pasta
Once you’ve used the amount of pasta water that you needed, you can drain off the rest so we can start assembling our dish! 😍
Step 9: Add the cooked pasta to the pan and to the egg mixture
Add the pasta to the pan with the guanciale and fat, and then add that mixture to the bowl with the egg and pecorino mixture. Not adding the eggs to the pan will avoid a “scrambled egg” result, since the pan will still be a bit too hot. 👀
Step 10: Plate, decorate, and enjoy!
Plate your pasta, add more grated pecorino and ground pepper, and dig in! You did it! 👏
Not too complicated, right? Show us your carbonara creations by sharing photos to your socials and tagging us using @foodblog.mt! 💪
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