I am often asked if I have a specialty dish that I make. I don't really have one that I make over and over but if I could choose a dish to be my own specialty dish it would be spaghetti carbonara. I first had carbonara at the Adventure bar in Japan just outside of Sasebo. It was an odd place to get a great plate of Italian food, it was owned by a man from Holland who had married a woman from Japan and together they served up Italian food. It was also the only place in Japan that I found to have Heineken on tap and they served it up in generous 32 ounces mugs.
The carbonara at the Adventure bar was so good that it pretty much ruined carbonara for me. Every time I ordered it after leaving Japan I was disappointed. When I started cooking I tried to make it several times, the first couple of tries ended up being more like noodles and scrambled eggs, my technique was off just a bit and I never thought I was going to get it right. I had pretty much given up on trying until I started making my own guanciale.
Guanciale is the dry cured jowl of a pig that it traditionally used in making carbonara. Along with guanciale, eggs, Parmesan, pasta, salt and pepper is about all that goes into it. When done correctly the eggs and cheese for a light and beautiful creamy sauce that covers the pasta. It is a surprisingly simple dish when you look at the ingredient list but there is nothing easy about the cooking of the dish. If the eggs are added when the pan it to hot they will curdle and the texture of your dish is ruined.
