Preziosa (Precious) was the title Ada Boni gave to the home economics magazine she established in 1915. Six years later, the accumulation of slender monthly magazines formed the basis of her cooking manual Il Talismano della Felicità (The Talisman of Happiness), which is still in print today. Boni would continue directing Preziosa until 1959, allowing for a lively symbiotic relationship, with the popular magazine nourishing the constantly updated editions of Il Talismano, making a dynamic reflection of evolving cooking and recipes over the decades.
I have a 1949 fabric-covered 18th edition of Il Talismano. Its hundreds of recipes were gathered from all over Italy (and a few beyond), but Boni was Roman, so it’s interesting to see her interpretations of classic pasta recipes at the time: spaghetti all’amatriciana (with guanciale, onion, tomato and pecorino or parmesan), spaghetti al guanciale, spaghetti con tonno e funghi (tuna and mushrooms). But what about carbonara? She doesn’t include a recipe, and in fact it would be another few years before anyone included a recipe for that anywhere.
Both the theory that Bolognese chef Renato Gualandi made something similar for American troops stationed in Rome at the end of the second world war, and that traditional Abruzzese recipes for pasta with cheese and eggs met pasta with cured pork, seem probable origins for carbonara. What is certain, however, according to the food historian Luca Cesari in his carbonara biography, is that the first printed recipe for pasta carbonara was in America in 1952, and in Patricia Bronté’s An Extraordinary Guide to What’s Cooking on Chicago’s Near North Side. The recipe is as follows: boil one and a half pounds of tagliarini and fry half a pound of Italian bacon. Drain the noodles and the bacon. Take four eggs and a quarter-pound of grated parmesan, and whip together. Mix everything together and toss over a flame.
Then, in August 1954, the magazine La Cucina Italiana published the first recipe in Italy by “reader request”, and it calls for pancetta, gruyere, eggs and a clove of garlic.
I don’t as yet have an edition of Il Talismano from the 1960s. I do, however, have a seminal 1961 book called Il Carnacina by Luigi Carnacina, and he includes a recipe for carbonara that calls for spaghetti, guanciale, olive oil, butter, parmesan and “a few” tablespoons of fresh cream. I also have a 1979 edition of Il Talismano that suggests spaghetti alla carbonara is made with onion and pancetta cooked in butter and wine, eggs, parsley, parmesan and pepper, while the 1999 edition drops the onion and wine.
All this confirms what we already know: recipes evolve and, along the way (via Ada, Renato, Luca, Patricia and Luigi), we have bacon, butter, parmesan, pancetta, wine, onion, garlic and cream in our carbonara. The 1979 version is the one I am suggesting as this week’s recipe, and for six to honour Ada’s proportions.
The recipe advises “the bowl” approach, which is clever and means you avoid the danger of a scramble. The beaten egg, cheese, pork and its fat become a sauce in the residual heat against the sides of the (warm) bowl. I have made two adjustments: I found three whole eggs extremely hard to incorporate, so suggest three egg yolks plus one whole egg. The recipe also advises not salting the pasta water, something I won’t be doing again. Feel free to try the suggestions in Il Talismano, or mine. Or to follow one of the many precious recipes that say carbonara must only ever be made with guanciale, pecorino and egg. For now, at least …
Spaghetti alla carbonara like it’s 1979
Serves 6
1 onion, peeled and sliced
200g pancetta, diced
30g butter
Half a glass of white wine
3 egg yolks, plus 1 whole egg
50g grated parmesan
1 small bunch parsley, minced
Black pepper
600g spaghetti
Working in a frying pan, fry the onion and pancetta in butter until they are lightly coloured, then add the wine and leave to simmer and evaporate slowly.
In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and whole egg with the cheese, parsley and black pepper.
Cook the pasta in an abundance of water until it reaches the right point of doneness, then drain or lift directly into the bowl with the cheese and egg. Give everything a good mix, then tip in the very hot pancetta and onion, mix again and send straight to the table.
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