Carbonara is Rome's great pasta of the twentieth century, and one of the youngest of the Italian classics. It is missing from Ada Boni's La cucina romana of 1930, and most food historians place its arrival just after the Second World War, when Allied supplies brought plenty of bacon into the city and Roman cooks did something rather more elegant with it. Theories about the name are plentiful, from the charcoal burners, carbonari, of the hills around Rome to a secret society of the same name, and none has won. What is settled is the recipe: spaghetti, guanciale, eggs, pecorino romano and black pepper. Nothing more, and in particular, no cream.

The trick, and it is a trick, is that the sauce is made by the heat of the pasta alone. Hot spaghetti, tossed with the rendered pork fat and a little starchy cooking water, warms the beaten eggs and cheese just enough to turn them into a silky, clinging cream rather than scrambled egg. It takes practice to feel the moment, and a few attempts are a perfectly respectable way to spend a race weekend. The whole thing takes twenty minutes, uses five ingredients and rewards confidence, which is also how the best qualifying laps are described.

The guanciale

Ingredients

• 6 oz (170 g) guanciale

Method

1. Put the guanciale strips in the cold frying pan with no oil and set it over medium low heat. Cook, stirring every minute or two, for 8 to 12 minutes, so the fat melts out slowly before the meat crisps.
2. Turn off the heat and leave the guanciale and all its fat in the pan. You will add the pasta to this pan.

The egg and cheese cream

Ingredients

• 4 large egg yolks
• 2 large whole eggs
• 1 1/4 cups (100 g) pecorino romano
• 2 teaspoons black pepper

Method

1. Put the yolks and whole eggs in the large heatproof bowl. Add the grated pecorino and the black pepper and beat with the fork or whisk until thick and well blended.

The pasta and finishing

Ingredients

• 12 oz (340 g) spaghetti
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt
• about 1 cup (240 ml) hot pasta cooking water

Method

1. Bring 4 quarts (4 liters) of water to a rolling boil in the large pot, add the salt and then the spaghetti. Stir for the first minute so it does not stick. Cook for 1 minute less than the packet says.
2. Before draining, dip the mug or ladle into the pot and scoop out about 1 cup (240 ml) of the cloudy cooking water. Set it next to the stove.
3. Lift the spaghetti straight from the pot into the frying pan with the tongs, letting a little water drip in with it. Set the pan over medium heat for 1 minute and toss the pasta in the fat and guanciale until every strand is glossy.
4. Take the pan off the heat. Whisk 2 tablespoons of the hot pasta water into the egg mixture to loosen and warm it slightly.
5. Tip the hot pasta and guanciale, with all the fat, into the bowl of egg mixture, scraping the pan. Immediately toss and stir hard with the tongs for 1 to 2 minutes, lifting the pasta high and letting it fall, and adding splashes of pasta water a tablespoon at a time whenever the sauce looks thick or sticky. Working in the bowl, away from the stove, keeps the eggs from scrambling.
6. If after 2 minutes of tossing the sauce is still watery, set the bowl over the pasta pot of hot water, off the heat, and keep tossing for 30 seconds to 1 minute until it thickens.
7. Divide among the warm bowls at once, twisting the spaghetti into a nest with the tongs. Finish each with more grated pecorino and a generous grind of black pepper.

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