Everything You Need To Know About Roman Pasta

My cousin Settimo is a walking stereotype of every vivacious, vibrant, loud Italian you can think of. Contributing to that stereotype, he's also an incredible cook, and when I was younger, my family would anticipate his annual visits with hungry stomachs; he always made something delicious that would make my mother hound him for his recipes, amazed that he'd been able to transform everyday Shoprite ingredients into something worthy of an Italian kitchen. 

The first carbonara I ever tried was his and though he tried to kill me the next year by making pasta with lobster (I have a severe shellfish allergy), I could tell his pasta was special. In the years that followed, my mom began to recreate my cousin’s carbonara and while she would add less spice, she also began to cook the egg separately, adding scrambled eggs to the pasta out of fear of salmonella. I visited Rome two years ago with this version of carbonara in mind: a breakfast pasta of sorts, with cooked egg, bacon, and parmesan cheese. 

I didn't realize this wasn't Italian-style carbonara until I ate my first Roman dish at Dot in 2017. Roman carbonara is much creamier and richer, with an egg and cheese base and thick chunks of pancetta mixed in. After I adapted to the unexpected (who knew the egg was in the sauce not the pasta itself, who knew pancetta was more flavorful than bacon?), it quickly became a favorite. Paired with longer pasta like fettuccine or tagliolini, carbonara is the most filling of the four Roman pastas and quickly became my favorite. Now the idea of adding an actual scrambled egg to my carbonara feels like blasphemy, though my mom still swears cooking the egg first is the only way to guarantee we won’t get salmonella.

Almost as filling, amatriciana is Rome's rendition of a standard meat sauce. Often using shorter tube pasta, pasta all'amatriciana appeals to even the pickiest of eaters who still don't realize spaghetti and meatballs is an Italian-American concoction. Like carbonara, amatriciana is a mix of pancetta and sauce, and is a simple, hearty pasta representative of a city that knows how to cook. 

Like carbonara, gricia consists of pancetta and pecorino, though it lacks the egg base. A slightly lighter option than its eggy counterpart, gricia adds pancetta to expand upon the basic cacio e pepe: glorified macaroni and cheese with pepper. Cacio e pepe is pared down carbonara, sans egg, sans meat - a classic, simple dish offered at any Roman restaurant you'll visit.