The “new” traditions: the Pasta Carbonara-style

Let’s start by saying that the “carbonara” as we know it today is a rather recent invention. Before the Second World War, in fact, there are no written records of this recipe and there are no report of it in the most famous books. Most of the theories on the origins are linked to the presence of American allied troops in Italy during the last two years of war.
The most popular theory has it that this pasta mixed with eggs, ham and bacon was invented by a Roman cook that prepare it using the soldiers rations. Therefore the recipe requires for pancetta, similar to bacon, rather than the traditional guanciale (meat from the pig’s cheek). This theory, however, is disputed by some experts: some argue that the ingredients are actually those of the Allied troops rations, but in reality, the carbonara was invented by chef Renato Riccione Gualandi inspired by a Slovenian recipe.  Others believe that the origins of this dish are much older and related to the Lazio recipe “cacio e ova” (cheese and eggs) eaten by coalminers (in Italian carbonari).
Probably, carbonara is the result of an evolution of the traditional “cacio e ova”, modified at the end of World War II, using the ingredients available at the time.  For these reasons it is difficult to associate this recipe with the word “authentic”, there is no doubt though, that some necessary tricks have to be applied to prepare a good pasta carbonara.
This dish is prepared in many different ways: some add the cream, others prefer to sauté the pasta with the egg, while others think it is better to use the guanciale instead of bacon. Perhaps, given the recent origins of the recipe, none of these are to be considered formally incorrect, as it is more a matter of taste.
Nonetheless we asked our chef Mario Grazia some tips on how to make a good carbonara:

- When you drain the pasta set aside some of the cooking water and add it to the egg in order to obtain a creamy and not too dry carbonara.

- The carbonara is likely to be a recipe from the Lazio region, where the use of cream is very limited. Therefore, in order to respect the original spirit of the recipe, it might be better not to use it. If you add some cooking water to the pasta, the dough should be fairly smooth even without the cream.

- When you mix the pasta with the egg, be careful to pour the last on the pasta and not the other way round, to avoid the making of annoying lumps.

Finally, remember that if you want to try our Pasta Carbonara recipe, you will find it on our website!

Buon appetito!

About Marco Corricelli Home Town

Marco Corricelli   Founder & Executive Chef of Osteria Celli in Fort Myers Florida. 

Marco was born in 1975 and raised in Milan, Italy. He attended the renowned Amerigo Vespucci Culinary School. Upon graduation, he began his career in Milan’s finest hotels and restaurants. He then began traveling to broaden his  horizons and to see other culinary techniques. His travels took him across Europe from Greece to Holland,London,France and Spain. His time in Europe served to hone his skills in Mediterranean cuisine while giving him the opportunity to add his own personal touch and creativity. His next experience brought him to the Western United States specifically Malibu, California and Las Vegas, Nevada where he began a career as a Private Chef and In-Home Caterer for many of Hollywood’s top celebrities and VIPs. He then headed to Nevada where he brought his talent and experience in creative Mediterranean cuisine to Canaletto Ristorante inside the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In 2006, Marco returned to Europe to refresh his skills. This brought him to the Costa del Sol, Spain where he worked for Michelin star rated restaurant “El Lido” inside Las Dunas Hotel which was awarded as one of the “Leading Hotels of the World”. He was later hired as Chef of Production in Marbella by Le Nôtre Paris; the world renowned Catering company from France. For the past four years, Marco worked as a Private Chef for several affluent families in La Zagaleta Country Club, one of the most exclusive residential areas in Europe.  Spanning his career, his clients have included owners of professional sports team, casino owners, several CEOs of Forbes 500 companies, and many head figures in the political world. Osteria Celli Local Italian Restaurant in Fort Myers

Milan Italy

Milan (/mɪˈlænˌ -ˈlɑːn/, Italian: Milano [miˈlaːno] ( listen), Lombard: Milan [miˈlaːŋ]), Latin: Mediolanum, is the second-most populous city in Italy and the capital of Lombardy. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area is the 5th largest in the EU with an estimated population of about 5,264,000. The massive suburban sprawl that followed the post-war boom of the 1950s–60s and the growth of a vast commuter belt, suggest that socio-economic linkages have expanded well beyond the boundaries of its administrative limits and its agglomeration, creating a polycentric metropolitan area of between 7 and 10 million people, stretching over the former provinces of Milan, Bergamo, Como, Lecco, Lodi, Monza and Brianza, Pavia, Varese, Novara. The Milan metropolitan region is part of the so-called Blue Banana, the area of Europe with the highest population and industrial density, and one of the Four Motors for Europe.

Milan was founded by the Insubres, a Celtic people. The city was later conquered by the Romans as Mediolanum, eventually becoming the capital of the Western Roman Empire. During the Middle Ages, France, Habsburg Spain, and Austria, until 1859 when the city joined the rising Kingdom of Italy. During the early 1900s, Milan led the industrialization process of the young nation, being at the very center of the economic, social, and political debate. Badly affected by World War II, and suffering a harsh Nazi occupation, the city became the main centre of the Italian Resistance. In post-war years, the city enjoyed a prolonged economic boom, attracting large flows of workers from Southern Italy. During the last decades, Milan has seen a dramatic rise in the number of international immigrants, and in 2011 more than one sixth of its population is foreign born.

Pasta How It's Made

Homemade Pasta at Osteria Celli Italian Restaurant in Fort Myers

Marco Corricelli Owner Chef of Osteria Celli makes all his Pasta from scratch and has been reviewed by Fort Myers food critique Jean Le Boeuf and is rated  #4 on Tripadvisor by 68 reviewers. Stop in at Osteria Celli and say Hello to Marco.

 See how pasta is made and how it got started. 

Make Fresh Homemade Pasta With Chef Fabio Viviani | Food How To

Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, with the first reference dating to 1154 in Sicily.It is also commonly used to refer to the variety of pasta dishes. Typically, pasta is a noodle made from an unleavened dough of a durum wheatflour mixed with water and formed into sheets or various shapes, then cooked and served in any number of dishes. It can be made with flour from other cereals or grains, and eggs may be used instead of water. Pastas may be divided into two broad categories, dried (pasta secca) and fresh (pasta fresca). Chicken eggs frequently dominate as the source of the liquid component in fresh pasta.

Most dried pasta is commercially produced via an extrusion process. Fresh pasta was traditionally produced by hand, sometimes with the aid of simple machines, but today many varieties of fresh pasta are also commercially produced by large-scale machines, and the products are widely available in supermarkets.

Both dried and fresh pasta come in a number of shapes and varieties, with 310 specific forms known variably by over 1300 names having been documented. In Italy the names of specific pasta shapes or types often vary with locale. For example the form cavatelli is known by 28 different names depending on region and town. Common forms of pasta include long shapes, short shapes, tubes, flat shapes and sheets, miniature soup shapes, filled or stuffed, and specialty or decorative shapes.

Fettuccine Bolognes

Fettuccine Bolognes by Osteria Celli Fort Myers Florida

At Osteria Celli we use all local ingredients and we make our pasta from scratch

Bolognese sauce, known in Italian as ragù alla bolognese, is a meat-based sauce originating from Bologna, Italy. In Italian cuisine, it is customarily used to dress "tagliatelle al ragù" and to prepare "lasagne alla bolognese". In the absence of tagliatelle, it can also be used with other broad, flat pasta shapes, such as pappardelle or fettuccine, or with short tube shapes, such as rigatoni or penne. Genuine ragù alla bolognese is a slowly cooked sauce, and its preparation involves several techniques, including sweating, sautéing and braising. Ingredients include a characteristic soffritto of onion, celery and carrot, different types of minced or finely chopped beef, often alongside small amounts of fatty pork meat such aspancetta. Red wine and a small amount of tomato concentrate or tomatoes are added, and the dish is then gently simmeredat length to produce a thick sauce.

Evolution and variationsIn the century-plus since Artusi recorded and subsequently published his recipe for Maccheroni alla bolognese, what is now ragù alla bolognese has evolved with the cuisine of the region. Most notable is the preferred choice of pasta, which today is widely recognized as fresh tagliatelle. Another reflection of the evolution of the cuisine over the past 150 years is the addition of tomato, either as a puree or as a concentrated paste, to the common mix of ingredients. Similarly, both wine and milk appear today in the list of ingredients in many of the contemporary recipes, and beef has mostly displaced veal as the dominant meat.

Simple Bolognese

Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 pound ground chuck beef
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano

Directions
In a large skillet heat the olive oil. When almost smoking, add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until the onions become very soft, about 8 minutes. Add the celery and carrot and saute for 5 minutes. Raise heat to high and add the ground beef. Saute, stirring frequently and breaking up any large lumps and cook until meat is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, parsley and basil and cook over medium low heat until the sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper. This will take approximately 1/2 hour. Finish bolognese with Pecorino Romano.