The group of Travelen welcomes the food blogger Elpida Charalampidou. Elpida, who has many TV show appearances and has cooked next to Argiro (Barbarigou) and other great cooking personas, is cooking for your belly only! Elpida has her own website and a very popular facebook account (Elpida’s little Corner), while the amazing dishes she prepares have her own character. During our last trip to Rome, we tasted the authentic Italian carbonara plenty of times. It is different than what we were used to and we craved its taste once again. We asked Elpida to cook it for us, but mainly for all the readers of Travelen…and she did not deny us the favor. Follow her easy recipe and you will be licking your fingers! The floor and the ladles go to Elpida…
I got acquainted with Travelen not too long ago and what thrilled me were how well the blog was organized, Elena and Nikos’ zest and the fact that, through recipes, they travel to different places of the world.
So, today, we are going to travel to the neighboring Italy, through its most famous dish. As you might can tell, we are talking about the authentic Italian carbonara, without cream and mushrooms.
While everybody knows the carbonara, only a few are familiar with its story. According to one version, the carbonara was invented by a cook, who was a member of the Carbonarians, a group of Italian Rebels, who acted during the late 18th century. Another version claims that the carbonara was created by people, who visit the forest to make coal (carbon-carbone). But let’s not dawdle the story; let’s make the authentic Italian Carbonara, by Antonio Carluccio.
Level of difficulty: Low
Time: 12′
Serves: 2 persons
Ingredients
- 220 gr Spaghetti No.6
- 50 gr Guanciale or Bacon
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 50 gr Pecorino or Parmesan
Instructions
- We boil the spaghetti al dente in a large pot and pour 10gr of salt, for every liter of water. Notice: We do not pour olive oil in the water.
- In a pan, we pour the olive oil and bacon, chopped in cubes. (We want it to be crispy, if the bacon gets too oily, we remove it.)
- We stir the eggs with a fork inside a plate and we add the grated pecorino.
- We add plenty of freshly-grated pepper in the eggs and we stir.
- When our spaghetti has boiled, we pour them in the pan with the bacon. We stir well and take it off the fire. When the temperature has dropped a little, we add the eggs and mix well.
? We serve the Carbonara with grated Pecorino and freshly-grated pepper.
Secrets:
1) We always boil our pasta in a big pot so it doesn’t stick.
2) If you do not find Guanciale, get a thick slice of bacon; it is more easily chopped and baked. If you don’t want bacon, add some smoked pancetta.
3) Always save some water from your boiled pasta, for your sauces!
After such a trip and so many plates of pasta in our record, the menu could include nothing short of the authentic Italian Carbonara. Particulary, by the hands of the food blogger, Elpida Charalampidou. Visit her site!
Buon appetito..!
Travelen feels greatly honored that such an appraised food blogger joined our travel group and cooked an authentic Italian dish for all of you. Elpida, apart from a food blogger, is also a person with inexhaustible energy and positive attitude, who is always looking for new things and new activities. But the most important thing is that she always wears a big smile on her face. We thank her warmly.. ?