So we're gonna do a traditional carbonara done the right way but we're
gonna hack the recipe and we're gonna put in some wonderful British asparagus
and a little squeeze of lemon juice and oh my lord it's really really good! This
is on the specials board today! You've got the pasta, you got the pancetta,
you've got the eggs and parmesan, and we've got the amazing seasonal asparagus.
So we're using spaghetti, right so homemade spaghetti every single day, in
every single Jamie's Italian -- organic egg, semolina, tipo 00. That is going to go
into the water in a second. Some people put cream in their carbonara,
I want to show you the true Roman way to do it, and it involves, its very easy, very
quick, but it involves a little diligence. So look here we have the pancetta. Look
at that - incredible pork affumicata, smoked. So what we want to do is have big
chunks of pancetta, like this. This goes into a pan and we start to fry this, we
want to render out that fat. We've put no oil in that pan at all.
We're gonna whisk up some egg, we're gonna put some parmesan. In Rome maybe
they have pecorino, probably pecorino, or both, which is nice, but
if you go into the supermarket now you can get pecorino or parmesan, and then
we'll put this to the side. There's a little tweak because this is not the
classic one. We're going to use our asparagus. I'm going to take three little
sprues like this. I'm going to cut the asparagus almost the same size as the
pancetta, and we taste this amazing carbonara in Rome and we think oh it's
lovely and creamy, so when we go home and make it we get it nearly right, but we
throw a load of cream in it -- this is not the real carbonara, okay. It's actually
just eggs, cooking water and a little Parmesan or pecorino, or both. So that
requires a little skill. So in the pan here, have a look at this, as we start to
fry the pancetta then we can go in with the asparagus, in all that lovely smoky
fat, then we want to be overly generous with black pepper.
Look how generous I'm being, right, and you want to almost achieve
heat, that peppery heat through the pepper. So Andrea, my friend here he is a
proper Italian, I'm just from Essex. Carbonara, carbone means charcoal right? Charcoal,
exactly. So we're not sure if this dish was like a working-class dish for
like the miners, some people say that, or some people say that they use so much
black pepper that it looked a little bit like charcoal. Grey, beige. There's lots of
different stories. So look that's lovely. The pasta goes in, beautiful
spaghetti, homemade every single day. That only takes a minute and a half to cook.
Look at this now alright, golden, golden panchetta, and look at the fat dancing, and
all that pepper, and then the fragrance and the lightness of the asparagus. Now
here is the absolutely imperative moment with a real carbonara. That pan is
screaming hot, those eggs will scramble. We don't want that. So we take the pasta
out and we steal some water. See this water and then we put the pasta in, and
the water breaks the cooking, and the frying, and it takes away the aggressive
heat. We toss the pasta in that beautiful, beautiful fat and then when
the pan has calmed then we think about putting the egg in. So you have to be
patient, you can't rush it. So we'll get our lovely plate. This is why people use
cream, they use cream to cheat. If you let the pan calm down then you can put in
the egg and you should get a natural cream, a natural shine. Can you see
the change of colour? And then you start to add a little parmesan and
that is what you want. Look at that! That's the consistency you want. So you don't need
to add cream, you make your own with the starchy cooking water and the natural
fat from that beautiful smoked bacon, and then just little squeeze of lemon juice.
Summertime, comfort food! Really really good! And then as it goes away a nice
little long grating of parmesan. Look at the colours guys! And there you go
lovely people, a beautiful pasta. Carbonara with British asparagus.
Absolutely beautiful. That is a special of the day today and I'll actually put
it on for the rest of the week. Get in there and try it! But that my friends is
a peach of a dish. Come on!