Basic carbonara from a delicious hole-in-the-wall in Florence, Italy.

  • I know, I was trolling a bit.

    There’s two shops here in Berlin that sell guanciale, and pecorino romano is quite easy to find too. It took me a few years to perfect my carbonara, but I can make it quite good nowadays.

    If you go into any restaurant and order carbonara here, you get cream and bacon. Oh, oh, and the last time I was in the US, I had to see the Olive Garden with my own eyes. I got some trolly pictures there, take a look at their idea of what carbonara is:

    A photo of Olive Garden menu with a picture of their carbonara dish.

    Took me a while to understand where the name carbonara comes from. In Italy it means the coal miner. So you put enough black pepper to it that they look like a little coal pieces sprinkled around the pasta. Delicious.