4 Levels of Pasta Carbonara: Amateur to Food Scientist

[liquid splashing]

[knife slicing]

[sauce squishing]

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I am Joe and I'm a level one chef.

I'm Lorenzo and I'm a level two chef.

I'm Saul.

I'm a professional chef for the past 23 years.

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Today I'm making a classic carbonara.

Real easy recipe.

It's pasta, bacon, eggs, cheese,

everything that a growing boy needs.

Pasta carbonara, yes.

Nothing a little too crazy,

except a little red pepper flakes that I add.

Don't come at me.

We are making carbonara with the best ingredients.

Mexican food is grandma's food.

Italian food is grandma's food.

You guys have the pasta, we have the masa.

Comprende?

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First thing first, I need to fry up my bacon,

which I have right here.

Pancetta is basically pork belly that's cured.

It's fancy.

I'm Filipino, folks.

I pork belly everything. [laughing]

The reason why I'm using guanciale

is because it looks beautiful.

The flavor of pork it's stronger,

it's richer, and it's delicious.

I don't know what guanciale is

and I barely know what pancetta is,

so I'm using bacon because I do understand bacon.

Bacon is just the easy way.

So if you like easy things, go with the bacon.

This has got a nice amount of fat.

That's what you want.

You gonna be using the fat in my sauce.

Five, six strips.

[Saul] I'm going to remove this skin,

because it's very dry and if you cook it,

it becomes really rubbery.

[Joe] There's no science to anything that I do.

I'm just cooking with my heart and no skill.

[Saul] The reason why I'm making big chunks,

because when I eat my carbonara,

I want to make sure that I have

basically like a croutons.

If you like bigger chunks, I get it,

but the size that I have here is what I would do.

[Joe] And then we're just gonna toss it in the pan,

round it up.

We're gonna cook it low and slow.

We don't want burnt bacon.

Carbonara needs this yummy, decadent,

fatty element to be a true carbonara.

[Joe] I know the sweet spot.

I know I like your crispy,

but just when it gets crispy.

Bacon, I'm an expert.

I'm a level three bacon

cook.

Well, I would like this like ultra crispy.

We want our guanciale to look like this.

Not like this. So we want to cook more of this fat.

So we're looking for something like that.

Now this right here is the color I like to see,

'fore gets burned.

Fats still in there.

Red pepper flakes.

Now I know this is not what you're supposed to use

in carbonara.

I'm not even putting that much.

The reason why I'm not seasoning

this guanciale is because it's

full of flavor.

Doesn't need anything else.

Let ingredients speak for themselves.

I just like to add heat.

That's all.

[Saul] All right. At this point,

our pancetta looks pretty sexy to me.

Pancetta, I'm not using Pancetta.

I'm not Lorenzo.

I don't have the beautiful smile.

[Lorenzo scoffs and laughs]

I'm gonna put this on a paper towel right now

so it can soak up a little bit of that excess oil.

[Saul] Guanciale croutons are getting smaller

and that's why I cut 'em so thick

because they lose weight.

I am done cooking my pancetta.

I'm actually gonna make my carbonara in this pan,

So I'm removing the ones that are ready

'cause I don't want them to burn.

I'm removing all these little burned bits

'cause I don't want my pasta to be grainy.

And I am ready to make my pasta.

I'm keeping it real simple.

I got some store bought spaghetti right here.

Bucatini!

Why? 'Cause I'm a child and I love this tubular stuff.

Can you see that?

It's like little straws.

The sauce goes inside.

I'm gonna use spaghetti pasta from Italy.

And why I know it's from Italy

is because everything is in Italian.

[Lorenzo] Rolling boil here.

[Joe] Don't wanna burn myself.

[Lorenzo] You have to salt your water.

[Joe] I like to do a big pinch of salt.

I didn't add too much salt in the water,

'cause my two cheeses already has the salt in there.

[Joe] I'm just gonna pop it right in there

and mix 'em around,

make sure that they're separated.

I'm setting my timer nine minutes,

because that's how long the box said.

I like my past al dente,

not fully cooked.

I think if you throw a noodle against the wall

and it sticks,

that's al dente.

Throw it at the wall.

My noodle hit the wall and it bounced off.

So I gotta give this another minute

and then we're gonna try it again.

And I'll keep on throwing noodles all day

until it's right.

[Lorenzo] I'm gonna take it out.

I don't like to get it soft.

Maybe I got lied to by big noodle.

But before I do the straining,

I'm gonna take a couple cups of pasta water and save it.

It's basically starchy water,

and it'll help make a beautiful,

viscous sauce.

Once I got my pasta going,

this is where you're gonna make the sauce.

The sauce is very simple.

The base of carbonara is eggs.

Four whole eggs.

I'm using three egg yolks and one whole egg.

I'm gonna use four egg yolks.

I have these heirloom eggs, farm raised.

They're beautiful.

Look at this color.

It's vents.

So that means it's gonna be rich of flavor.

The reason why I'm mostly only using egg yolks is because

I think if you're using a whole eggs

your pasta will be very eggy.

Which is fine 'cause you know,

you do whatever makes you happy.

One whole egg because there's more moisture

in the egg white and it makes my sauce more viscous.

While doing this, make sure you

also turn your pasta so it doesn't stick together

without breaking it.

Breaking the pasta is like breaking somebody's heart.

You don't do that.

Back to egg yolks.

We wanna make like a little crema,

a little bit of pepper.

At home,

I do not measure.

I eyeball everything.

Oh, I'm gonna add a little bit more

[Saul] Pecorino Romano, Pecorino.

than I would the

[Joe] Parmesan Reggiano. Parmesan.

[Joe] This is gonna be somewhere between like

a cream and a paste.

And I'm just gonna add a lot of pepper.

You gotta use your heart.

You can't use a measuring cup 'cause you might get it right.

[Saul] Now I'm gonna add some of this pork fat,

and I'm also gonna throw a little bit here.

My sauce is complete.

So this is what I'm looking for.

It's a little chunky, kind of looks like grits.

But once the cheese starts melting,

you get the pasta water in there,

you get the bacon grease in there.

This is gonna turn into a nice smooth sauce.

So I'm gonna take some of this pasta water

and add it into my pan here.

I'm also gonna add some of the water pasta

into my egg yolks,

because I want to have a very creamy sauce

without cooking it.

'Cause we're gonna have an ice creamy pasta

without adding cream.

We do not add cream, we're not making Alfredo.

I feel good right now and I'm just gonna put

all of these things together in the the pan.

[Lorenzo] So I am about to pour my egg mixture

right into this cool pan.

Cool, 'cause I don't want my egg yolks

to turn into scrambled eggs.

Low and slow.

'cause I don't want this to be a spaghetti frittata.

But now that I'm saying that out loud, I do.

But that's not the mission.

I am gonna add in

my bucatini pasta.

[Saul] So I wanna make sure that pork fat mixing

with the pasta, so the pasta doesn't stick together.

[Joe] And now look at the bacon.

So basically I'm just trying to get this sauce to

kind of smooth out, melt the cheese.

This is not science to me,

this is just going with the flow. So..

Add some pasta water.

The reason why I use water, because the water

has a lot of starch, so it makes the sauce creamier.

[Joe] That's how mama does it,

but I don't know what it actually does.

[Saul] Okay, now I'm going to add the egg

and you have to go fast.

Look how creamy this looks.

[Lorenzo] So even though my pan is cooled,

I've got some heat going on from my bucatini pasta.

It's still nice and warm.

That's what I'm using to

kind of create this beautiful sauce.

And now I'm gonna add my beautiful guanciale croutons.

This just has the look that I want.

It's not too thick,

it's not too runny.

When you use bacon, you just get lost.

But in here you can see it.

You can see what you eating.

Add that texture of meat to my pasta.

[Joe] Black pepper.

It absolutely looks creamy.

I think it's beautiful.

Carbonara is set super fast.

So, gimme a plate.

I, I'm ready to go.

Now plating is not my specialty.

You see, it's creamy.

Without adding cream.

Without adding butter.

Your guanciale fat, that's your butter.

Do no add cream, add egg yolks.

That's your cream.

[Lorenzo] I'm gonna do a little twisty tube.

[Joe] It's a bowl of noodles,

so I don't know how fancy you can plate this for me.

It's just,

slop it into a bowl.

Pretty.

[Joe] Bring a little bit more black pepper on there.

[Saul] And now,

the gift from God.

Guanciale.

I'm gonna sprinkle a little bit of cheese,

for the look.

[Lorenzo] Pecorino. Pecorino romano.

[Lorenzo] Why not?

[Saul] I love cheese. You know me.

I'm gonna garnish it with

a little bit more guanciale.

We're gonna make a little nest.

So the reason why I'm putting a beautiful egg yolk on top

is because I want this pasta to look amazing,

and also add that flavor of egg.

This is my carbonara.

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And this is my carbonara.

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And this is my classic carbonara.

[camera clicks]

If I was at the Olive Garden and they put this

in front of me, I'd be like, you nailed it.

This is the way it looked on the menu.

It's steaming slightly so I know it can't wait

for me to take a bite.

[Saul] And I'm going to keep marrying the egg yolk inside.

And this is what I was telling you.

Have fun.

[Lorenzo] I'm ready. What do ya say?

Ready?

Hmm. Hmm.

That's perfect.

Sauce is creamy.

The bacon is crispy.

The noodles are soft.

I mean it's, I did it.

Yum. The combination of the two cheeses.

Tangy. Creamy.

Doesn't taste that eggy,

even though I put an egg yolk on top.

But that egg, it's another level.

I also have my red pepper flakes.

Sorry out there, but I like it a little spicy.

And then my fun bucatini

on this creamy sauce.

Hello.

That guanciale when I was eating it

with the pasta it was just like,

boom, wake up.

Italians, thank you for this amazing pasta.

[slurps] Wow.

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Carbonara is a quick, yet decadent dish.

Let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs.

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Joe and Saul used dried spaghetti.

Spaghetti is a hard thin string of pasta.

It's a small diameter solid tube,

extruded through a dye to maintain the round attribute.

Lorenzo made bucatini,

a noodle similar to spaghetti,

but hollow and larger in diameter.

Commercial dried pasta is made

by mixing flour and water under vacuum.

It's shaped and then dried

in massive climate controlled dryers,

some as long as 320 feet.

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Joe used bacon, which comes from the belly of pork.

Commercially, it's cured with nitrites

and sometimes smoked.

The sublime aroma from frying bacon,

or any cured pork product,

is from a combination of hydrocarbons and aldehydes.

Which one combined with nitrogen containing compounds

like puradine and pyrazine,

gives the bacon that notable

and craving-inducing meaty aroma.

Lorenzo used pancetta, also from the belly of pork,

and cured similar to bacon,

but lower in water content

and may have some extra flavorings added.

Saul used guanciale, made from pork jowls,

similar to pancetta in processing,

but much higher in fat and more tender.

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Eggs are the star of this dish,

and because they're high

in emulsifying compounds like fat,

phospholipids, lecithin, and acetylcholine,

they blend together the other ingredients

like cheese, black pepper, and pork fat.

All three chefs use the heat of the pasta

and starchy pasta water to lightly cook the eggs,

making a creamy sauce.

Joe used whole eggs.

Egg whites contain more water than the yolks

and are mostly water-soluble proteins that coagulate

at a lower temperature than the proteins in the fatty yolks.

Lorenzo used mostly egg yolks,

which are higher in fat and emulsifiers,

intensifying the creaminess of his carbonara.

Saul only use egg yolks,

making his pasta super silky.

Next time you find yourself with

pasta, eggs, cured pork, and black pepper,

we hope you'll take some of these tips

from our three fabulous chefs.