
Then toss the pasta with the tempered eggs in the still-warm cooking pot, which will help the mixture stay warm enough to melt the cheese. This makes them less likely to curdle once you toss them with the cooked pasta. To streamline things, have the beaten eggs at the ready in a bowl, and quickly whisk in a few tablespoons of reserved hot pasta cooking water to temper them.

This recipe calls for raw eggs that are gently cooked by the hot sauce. What distinguishes carbonara from other pasta dishes is its technique of combining eggs, hard cheese, cured pork, and black pepper into a rich, silky sauce. It was a marrying of traditions between American soldiers in Italy during World War II and their bacon and egg rations with the local pasta dishes.The name refers to the ground black pepper in the dish that resembles flecks of coal ( carbone means charcoal in Italian).

It was invented by Italian carbonari (charcoal workers) who prepared the dish on their shovels over a fire.There are a slew of theories about its possible origins, including: Carbonara is one of Rome's four classic pastas ( cacio e pepe, amatriciana, and gricia are the others).
