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Authenticity

A Recipe for Authenticity

Nobody ever put food on the table by worrying about the notion of authenticity… or did they? Gordon Giles on authentic culinary performance.

Here we have a recipe for Spaghetti alla Carbonara – a Roman dish, whose flavour is owed mainly to the ingredient known both to us and Italians as pancetta. Camisa explains:

“Pancetta … looks like a large fatty salame. The pork is cured and spiced and then rolled up into a salame shape. It is not smoked as many people think, and is not bacon – in fact it has a totally different flavour from bacon… it is essential in Spaghetti alla Carbonara.”

Pancetta, then, is essential for a Carbonara sauce, which means that if your sauce lacks it, it is not Carbonara.

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