How The Best Carbonara in NYC is Made

Bon Appétit

Bon Appétit joins Chef Mattia Moliterni of Roscioli NYC, the iconic Roman restaurant’s New York outpost, as he makes their famous carbonara. Discover the secrets behind Roscioli’s most beloved recipe, from sourcing authentic ingredients like guanciale and Pecorino Romano, to perfecting the creamy, egg-based sauce without a drop of cream. Straight from the heart of Rome to the Big Apple, this is how carbonara is meant to be made.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Mattia Moliterni from Rocioli New York City and today we make our

00:06perfect version of spaghetti alla carbonara.

00:11Rocioli opened in 1972. The restaurant is one of the most popular restaurants in

00:15Rome. Here in New York today we are making our traditional spaghetti alla

00:20carbonara. A simple recipe driven by ingredients. It's creamy, it's rich but

00:24not too fatty. It is a very complex dish even if it's something very simple. First

00:29things we prepare our ingredients. Okay we start from the guanciale. Guanciale is

00:35the cheek of the pork. I think that guanciale for the carbonara is way better

00:39than any bacon or pancetta because the balance between the fat and the meat.

00:44The fat is a lot. The guanciale is covered with black pepper and on the other side

00:50is a skin. We have to remove both because the skin is inedible while the black

00:55pepper. As soon as it goes to the pan it's going to be burnt and bitter so we

01:02remove both of them. Technically what we want is a cube that is very crunchy outside

01:08but soft inside and when meat is not fat enough this is something that is tough to

01:13get. Now we take a pan. We like iron pan but regular pan is fine. We put the fire

01:21like very high heat and as soon as the pan is hot, so you can see that now it's hot, you

01:29put all the cubes of the guanciale here. As soon as you put the guanciale in the pan you

01:36can lower down the fire up to medium heat. If you overcook the guanciale it becomes kind

01:43of burnt and bitter. Guanciale doesn't require any extra virgin olive oil, any butter because the

01:50meat is extremely fat and if you don't use a pan that is too wide you will have the guanciale

01:58frying in its own fat which is exactly what we want. It's still a bit translucent. As soon

02:06as it becomes dark we can take it off. You want to put in the bowl even the fat that the guanciale

02:14have cooked with because if the guanciale is in its own fat it's going to remain crispy even

02:21something like in four hours so even almost the day after. In a separate pan we put our pepper.

02:29We like to use a mix of different peppers. We have black pepper from Sarovac which is the

02:35one that we use the most, the one that we use even in Rome. And then we have this spicy pepper

02:40that is white. It's from Muntok in Indonesia. And then we have a red pepper called Kampot. In this way

02:46you don't have just the flavor of the black pepper but it's way more floral and aromatic. But at home

02:51if you have the black pepper is more than fine, it's perfect. The pepper release all these flavors and

02:58aromas. It starts already smelling, it's a beautiful smell. Technically you understand when the pepper is

03:03ready because the pepper can start to jump. So as soon as they jump the pepper is ready you can take

03:07it off and grind it. The more you screw the grinder the more is going to be fine the texture and so we

03:15don't want that too fine and so we don't screw that too much. Some grinder have the screw on the bottom

03:21to calibrate the thickness, some on the top. This way we have the texture that we prefer and we can move

03:29and start making the sauce. We don't make the sauce in a pan but in a bowl. The pan it can be fine,

03:37the only thing is that is a bit more risky because when you put the pan on the fire you take the risk

03:42to have the egg coagulate and the cheese can become very chewy, which is something that we don't want.

03:48We want a sauce that has to be very smooth. For the sauce we need first the eggs. So let's say that for

03:56two people we use two yolk and half white. The yolk is very rich and fatty and this is the main

04:02ingredients of the sauce. Fresh eggs bring this nice yellow color to the sauce. We add some cheese.

04:09Traditionally the carbonara requires just pecorino cheese. We prefer to use a mixer. One of the key of

04:18the carbonara is the saltiness. Balance the saltiness is something that is super important and so that's why we

04:25prefer not to use just pecorino romano but to add the pecorino moliterno that is way sweeter.

04:30The texture of the cheese should be very very fine. At home if you have a cheese grater let's use the

04:35smaller one and here we use a machine actually. Then you have to add the pepper and a spoon of the fat

04:46of the guanciale. Usually we do one spoon per person. Without the flavor of the meat it's not the

04:52carbonara. I mean it's something it's something different. Before mixing the sauce we add a little

04:57bit of water. I took the water from the pasta that is boiling, melt everything together. Then we leave

05:05the bowl with the carbonara sauce on the water. The steam is going to warm up the sauce, help to make it

05:12creamy without coagulating the eggs. Now it's time for us to put the pasta in the boiling water. This is

05:20spaghettone, so it's a thick spaghetti. One of my favorites, the producers are very small. They dry

05:27their pasta slowly at low temperature. The problem when you dry pasta at a temperature that is too high

05:35is that it loses a lot of nutritional elements and even flavors. All the components are already very

05:42salty, so you don't need to add too much salt to the pasta in the water. We prefer to use a thick

05:48spaghettone because of its texture and it doesn't go overcooked. It remains very al dente. You want a

05:55pasta that is al dente but is cooked. We put it in the sauce and then we start melting it. Once the pasta is in

06:05the bowl with the sauce we start adding the guanciale. I'm trying not to add the fat of the guanciale because

06:11I have it already in the sauce so I don't need more fat. I just need the guanciale that you can

06:16probably even see that is super crispy. So now that we have the guanciale we can just emulsify the sauce.

06:24Emulsifying means melting all the ingredients together. Fat ingredients, especially the cheese,

06:30helps a lot the emulsion. If you add the right amount of water and you do that at the right temperature,

06:36is going to be a perfect sauce. Very smooth, very homogenous and that's exactly what you want. The

06:42goal here is to have a texture that is smooth. If needed we can add even a little bit of water with

06:52the starch. We want this emulsified, not watery, but not super thick. And as soon as you see that the pasta

07:01is creamy, that the sauce is smooth, you are good to go. Time to plate. A spoon is a great help. It's

07:10pretty easy to plate the pasta because you have it in the spoon and you have just to turn it. You remove

07:15the tweezers and you have a pasta plated nicely. Add a bit of guanciale on top. We need now to finish the

07:24pasta with the mix of our three peppers. And here it is, spaghetti alla carbonara.

07:42The pasta is very al dente. I truly love this mix of peppers. I think that is very aromatic and in

07:48some ways a bit unusual. Let's say that this can be a New York twist on our carbonara. The guanciale is

07:54crunchy. It's not overcooked. And again, you have this beautiful balance in your mouth between saltiness.

08:01It's for sure a rich flavor, but it's definitely not unbalanced. That's the way we like it.

08:09If you want to make carbonara at home, my recommendation is besides following these

08:13few easy steps is to be thoughtful about the ingredients that you purchase because they are

08:20so important. And if you do all that, you are going to end up with a pasta that is going to be rich,

08:25delicious and perfect.

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