The Great Walmsley Food Blog

There is perhaps no dish I have cooked more often than a classic Roman Carbonara, this seemingly simple plate of food sits perfectly in the venn diagram of what I love to cook and could possibly eat every remaining day of my life. It is for this reason that if I was to claim culinary mastery over one dish, this would certainly be my top choice. So this is how I make my Carbonara...

There are only five ingredients needed to make a Carbonara sauce: Egg Yolks, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Guanciale (Cured Pork Jowl), Black pepper and the water you’ve cooked your pasta in. You simply fry your cubed Guanciale on a high heat for a couple of minutes, until it is golden and crispy. Then into a bowl add the Yolks, twice the volume of finely grated cheese, the rendered fat from the Guaciale and a healthy crack of black pepper. Once your pasta is cooked in lightly salted water, in a lukewarm pan that your Guanciale was fried in (now off the heat), add the pasta whilst slowly adding your sauce mixture with a little pasta water and stirring. Do this until the sauce is emulsified to a perfectly creamy texture.

The satisfaction from getting the sauce perfect is like no other feeling, it takes immense concentration and practice. Too much heat - the eggs scramble. Too little heat - the dish is cold and not emulsified. Too much Pasta water - sauce is watery. Too little and the sauce is not creamy. Ultimately every time you cook this your instincts improve and the food gets better which is exactly why this is such a firm favorite of mine.