Italian food expert reveals how you've been making classic pasta dish wrong

Spaghetti carbonara
-Credit: (Image: Getty Images)


Spaghetti carbonara is a classic Italian dish containing simple ingredients. However, despite its simplicity, many people are cooking it wrong, and it's usually because of two common mistakes.

The origins of spaghetti carbonara and its name are obscure but most sources trace its origin to the region of Lazio towards the end of World War II. Some historians even suggest it was American soldiers in recently liberated Italy who invented the dish.

Whatever the story is behind carbonara's origins, in the modern day it is synonymous with Italian cuisine and can be found in most Italian restaurants around the world. It is also a go-to for a quick, home-cooked meal for many - many who are, unknowingly, often making it the wrong way.

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Italian food ambassador Vincenzo Prosperi is the face of the YouTube channel Vincenzo's Plate. The cooking channel boasts over 1.4 million subscribers and aims to teach people that "you don't have to go out to an expensive Italian restaurant to eat authentic Italian food."

During Vincenzo's recipe for spaghetti carbonara, he points out two common mistakes made by those attempting to make it. He takes aim at the use of cream and bacon in the classic pasta dish, stating: "An important rule: never, never, never put cream.

"You know why, in a restaurant, they put cream? Because carbonara is a dish you need to cook, serve and eat straight away. If you wait too long before you eat it, it gets stuck together, so the cream avoids that. It’s easier for the chef to make it with cream - it’s a no-no carbonara with cream. Please don’t make carbonara with cream!"

Instead of cooking carbonara with bacon, Vincenzo says that a "real carbonara" uses guanciale, which is cured pig cheek. He said: "It’s a beautiful piece of meat. To cure it, the flavours you put inside are garlic, sage and rosemary. Cured for a few months, and you get a beautiful, strong flavour."

Guanciale can prove difficult to find on your average British high street, but Vincenzo says you can use pancetta as a plan B. He adds: "If you can’t find guanciale, use pancetta. If you use bacon, it doesn’t work because bacon is smoked, so you get a different flavour and it doesn’t give you the real carbonara flavour."

Feel like you're ready to make a real Italian spaghetti carbonara? For Vincenzo's full recipe, click here.