Work Trip to Rome

Back in 2009, I spent 10 days in Italy. It's held the spot of favorite foreign country for me ever since. Florence and Tuscany was my favorite area, but I loved Rome as well. (Venice was a distant 3rd for me.) So when I heard that my work was sending me on a Greek Isles trip that included a day layover in Rome, I was very excited for both parts. Much more to come on Greece in a separate post. 

We arrived on a Sunday Morning and walked through the Villa Borghese gardens. We saw a zoo and a ton of locals enjoying a beautiful fall day, including a dog park area. We had lunch at Casina del Lago. The food wasn't the best but the views were nice.

The Coke Zero cans claim 100% gusto, which is a good motto for this trip. We only had one day, so time to hit the highlights. I threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, just like I did in 2009. According to legend if you do this, you will be destined to return to Rome. It only took 12 years for the first coin to work, so we'll see about this one.

The line to get into the Pantheon was out of this world, so we enjoyed it from the outside.

Then I revisited the best gelato in the world at Della Palma.

I got nutella and it is just as good as I remembered. 

And then we walked from there to Piazza Novana and then the Colosseum. Having a smartphone with Google Maps was much nicer than relying on the plastic maps and guidebooks.

And then for dinner, we went to Taverna Rossini where I ordered the carbonara.

This was EASILY the best carbonara I've ever had. Oh man. Worth the flight just for this. We only had one day in Rome. But it was a perfect day.

How To: Carbonara, Take Three

In the summer of 1999, my Dad and I took a road trip to the northeast. We met a family friend in Brooklyn who took us to an authentic Italian restaurant. I ordered fettucine carbonara. I was hooked. It took me three tries to figure out how to do it right at home.

Attempt #1.
Attempt #2.

I'm nearing the completion of a personal project, creating a cookbook. This is the last entree. And I finally figured out how to do it.

Ingredients

12 ounces angel hair pasta
8 pieces thick cut bacon, diced small
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 whole eggs
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
3/4 cup heavy cream
salt and lots of black pepper

Instructions

Dice the raw bacon and fry over medium heat until crisp. Remove from the pan, drain on paper towels, and season with pepper. Return the pan to the stove and throw in the onions and garlic. Cook until golden brown. Set aside. Drain but don't clean the pan.

Add the pasta to boiling water. Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix together eggs, Parmesan, cream, and salt and pepper until smooth. When the pasta is done, reserve a bit of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and place it in a bowl. While the pasta is still really hot, slowly drizzle in the egg mixture, stirring the pasta the whole time. The sauce will become thick and should coat the pasta. Splash in a little hot pasta water if needed for consistency (I didn't need to). Add to frying pan and stir briskly. Add the bacon, and sauteed onion/garlic.

The result is amazing. Cooking the onions and garlic in the bacon grease, and then finishing the whole pasta in the same pan gives it incredible flavor. And the ratio of egg and cream was perfect for me. (I know some people will say that cream has no place in a traditional carbonara. Okay. I guess this isn't traditional. But it's very, very good.)

HOW TO: homemade carbonara round two

My first attempt at homemade carbonara was fine, but it wasn't as good as I expected it to be. Since I still had some pancetta leftover, I tried again.

The first time around, I went with two kinds of bacon, just egg and cheese in the bowl, and served immediately after tossing the pasta and bacon in the egg mixture.

This time I went with straight up pancetta. I cooked it a bit longer to get it crispier, and draw out more flavor. The longer cooking time meant more wine was able to be added and absorbed into the meat. I also used some garlic powder to coat the pancetta, which browns on the outside of the meat nicely.

The biggest variation was that used a decent amount of heavy cream, in addition to my eggs and parmigiano reggiano. Also, once I tossed the pasta in the egg/cream, I returned everything to the bacon pan. The cream sauce absorbed the wine and bacon grease and turned a beautiful brownish color.

(1/100 - f4 - ISO2000)

As you can see, it's a lot creamier than the last time around. Which was the goal. Although it wasn't quite thick enough for my taste. And even though spaghetti is the traditional pairing for carbonara, it wasn't ideal for holding sauce.

Frankly, even though it looked great, and everything that went into it was great (cream, cheese, eggs, pancetta, wine--what's not to like?) it tasted a little bland.

Perhaps there's a way to let the sauce thicken (or maybe I just needed less cream) and add more flavor? It's good, but for the effort and the expense and the fattiness of the ingredients, I'm expecting something more.

HOW TO: make homemade carbonara

A double how-to Saturday!

I first had fettucine carbonara on vacation in Brooklyn in 1999. I was hooked.

I found a recipe in my Italian cookbook and gave it a shot. The recipe wasn't as daunting as it seemed. Matt's advice beforehand was to not overcook the eggs.

Here's the gist of the recipe I used, you sizzle up some pancetta (or American bacon) in a pan, with some garlic, olive oil and wine.

In a serving bowl, you mix two eggs with some parmigiano, pepper, and parsley.

You add the freshly cooked pasta (traditionally spaghetti) to the egg/cheese bowl and toss. And then you add the bacon, dripping with wine, to the pasta/egg bowl. That's right. I had to read that a few times, the raw egg mixture doesn't touch any heat at all. You just add the hot pasta to the eggs, and then add the bacon and serve.

- - -

The only pancetta I could find, came pre-diced into tiny cubes. So I decided to use both pancetta and American bacon. Double the flavor, double the texture, right? And I swear the proportions of the recipe are way off. It called for cooking 1.25 pounds of pasta, but only using two eggs. Since I was cooking for one, I barely used .25 pound of pasta, but I still used two eggs, since the one egg seemed so lonely in the bowl. Also, I didn't really cut down the bacon in the recipe, so it was fairly heavy on the bacon. Which is a good thing.

Here's a shot of the two kinds of bacon cooking in the wine.
(1/13 - f8 - ISO1250)

The rest was straightforward. I opted for fettuccine just because I don't like spaghetti much. I cooked the pasta, tossed in the cheesy/egg bowl, and then added the bacon. I plated it, took a picture, and took a bite. It was cold. Somehow the cold egg was enough to overpower the hot pasta and the hot bacon. So I zapped it for 30 seconds.

(1/100- f4 - ISO1250)

It was good. Though I thought that it hadn't reached my expectations. It was simple, fresh, and seemed very traditionally Italian. Perhaps I'd need a second opinion. The more I ate the more I liked it. But I'm still not sure if you couldn't get a better carbonara at Olive Garden. I don't know.

I think when it's served in restaurants, it's more like a full cream sauce, basically an alfredo with bacon. Well, this one had no cream or milk or anything, just egg and cheese. And I know I didn't overcook the eggs.