Carbonara

Rome claims carbonara, and the version served in the city's trattorias runs on four things: guanciale, pecorino romano, egg yolk and black pepper. Cream belongs to the export version. Guanciale is cured pork jowl, fattier and more strongly scented than pancetta, and the fat it renders is half the sauce, so the substitution most home cooks make is the one that changes the dish most. The origin is contested. One account credits the carbonari, charcoal burners working the Apennine woods; a better-documented version places it in Rome around 1944, when American rations of bacon and powdered egg met local pasta and pecorino. The first printed recipes date from the 1950s, which is late for a dish now treated as ancient.