Pasta carbonara served in restaurants abroad is tarred in almost three out of four cases (74 percent) with a tendency to misplace the recipe and use less valuable ingredients such as bacon instead of guanciale when not completely invented such as Romano Cheese made from cow’s milk instead of Pecorino.
This is what emerges from an online survey conducted by Coldiretti on the occasion of Carbonara Day, which is celebrated on April 6 and takes on special significance this year after the fanciful accusations of the British newspaper Financial Times that the dish was invented by Americans using K rations at the time of World War II. In reality, carbonara is a typical first course of Lazio cuisine made with eggs, guanciale (lard), grated pecorino romano cheese and pepper, which in foreign versions unfortunately takes on the most fanciful forms, Coldiretti explains.
An example- reports Coldiretti- is the use in the U.S. of the so-called “Romano Cheese,” which, in addition to not respecting the strict production specifications, is even obtained in the U.S. and Canada from cow’s milk and not sheep’s milk. Also to be avoided are the many American variants uncovered by Coldiretti on recipe sites on the web that include the addition of frozen peas, butter or basil but also cream, a horror also committed by the British.
But the list of tricolor dishes mispronounced outside the borders is long- Coldiretti recalls-from spaghetti bolognese that are depopulated in England, but that do not exist in the national tradition except in the menu catchers, to ‘Pasta with Meatballs,’ pasta with meatballs that no Italian would serve at the table, from pesto proposed with almonds, walnuts or pistachios instead of pine nuts and with common cheese replacing the ever-present Parmesan Reggiano and Roman pecorino, to caprese served with industrial cheese instead of buffalo mozzarella or fiordilatte.
