When creating pasta gourmet recipes, many people think “red sauce” or cream sauce! Pasta alla Carbonara, however, has no tomatoes or cream. Although it may look a little dry and “plain Jane”, one bite will tell you that this is sinfully wonderful stuff!
Carbonara comes from the word carbone, which means coal. Some say that perhaps this was a dish made by coal miners, since the ingredients would spoil too rapidly, since they were often in the woods for weeks at a time. Others say perhaps it is from the specks of black pepper that look like coal dust! I also learned that there was some sort of secret society that was instrumental in the unification of Italy called the Carbonari – or “charcoalmen” – and perhaps this dish was a tribute to them.
