Gnocchi Alla Carbonara

These soft and pillowy potato dumplings paired with velvety Carbonara sauce make them crave-worthy comfort food for any time of the year.

A fair warning.

While it looks like a simple dish, Carbonara might be a very challenging recipe for someone who wants to have a dense, fatty, creamy and smooth sauce  coating on the pasta without scrambling the eggs.

In years, to make this recipe ‘accessible’ to anyone, a lot of inappropriate ingredients have been used; such as heavy cream, milk or buttercream that inevitably change the texture of the original idea of the dish and so the flavor. 

The recipe of a good Carbonara sauce only requires three main ingredients: egg yolks, cured pork and cheese. Understanding these elements will be the key of the final result and a successful dish.

• Gnocchi - fresh potato gnocchi. They can be store-bought (the kind that is found in the refrigerated aisle, next to fresh pasta).
  Of course, your best option is to make fresh homemade potato gnocchi yourself or use the ones you've made earlier and stored in the freezer.
• Guanciale (Cured Pork Jowl) - Guanciale is cured pork jowl, seasoned with crushed black pepper and then smoked. To get the most from your carbonara, you need that little tangy and smoky flavor that comes from Guanciale.
  
  Guanciale tends to have the highest ratio of fat to lean meat, which means that it renders the most liquid fat as it cooks, and that liquid is super important to make the classic carbonara cream. It's also often cured with spices rubbed onto its surface; surly pepper and sometimes even cloves and cinnamon, which will end in the final taste of the dish.
  
  While Guanciale is the only acceptable ingredient in Rome, it might be hard to find it in other parts of the world. So here a few acceptable alternatives:
  
  • Pancetta, often used as a substitute, can be a good substitute, although it is not smoked and it has a different ratio of fat compared to guanciale. 
  • Smoked American Bacon it’s also an option but it will be our last because it is too different from the guanciale in the smoking process and fat content.
    
• Egg Yolks- to get a creamier consistency we need to divide egg yolks from whites and use egg yolks ONLY.  The rule of thumbs is 1 yolk for portion + 1 (as Italian say for the pan). This means if you are making carbonara for 4 you'll need 5 yolks in total. 
• Pecorino Cheese - Carbonara is a Roman pasta dish and so it requires the salty tang of Pecorino Romano, an aged sheep's-milk cheese.
  Although Pecorino Romano tends to be very salty and it is quite often mixed and tempered with Parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano).
  You can use equal parts 1:1  of each and whisk them into the egg yolks in a mixing bowl, along with plenty of coarsely ground black pepper.
  You can also use only Parmesan if you are not able to find Pecorino Romano or you don’t like the strong flavor of it.

• Turn off the heat.
• Remove guanciale pieces and place them on a paper towel to absorb the excess fat. Save the liquid (fat) from the pan.
• Filter it if desired.

Set the pot with water on a stove

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While the water is warming prepare the egg/cheese mix. 
• Take a large stainless steel bowl, large enough to fit both gnocchi and the sauce.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once all ingredients for the sauce are mixed, we will put the bowl over the pot with boiling water, creating water-bath (also known as bain-marie).

This why it's important the bowl fits the size of your pot with water.

Prepare the sauce

• Place all the egg yolks, the liquid fat from guanciale (make sure it is warm but not hot otherwise it will cook the eggs) into the bowl.
• Mix with a whisk.  Add then both cheeses and the ground pepper and keep mixing.
• At this point you will need some hot water from the pot. Use a spoon and add water to the mixture little by little, (approx. 3-4 tablespoon in total) and keep mixing just until the sauce thickens and gets smoother and soft. 
• Place the bowl on top of the pot with water (while it is still reaching boiling temperature) so the heat from the bottom will help the eggs reach 150°F (65C) and finalize the texture of the sauce in about 2 min.
  
  IMPORTANT: Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. If it does, remove excess water.
  
• Remove the bowl before it gets too hot otherwise the egg sauce will scramble and you’ll loose the creaminess.

Cook gnocchi, mix with the sauce and serve

• Once the water reaches the boiling temperature, add ½ tablespoon of salt (we keep the salt low here because all the rest is very salty) and pour the gnocchi in it.
• Once gnocchi come afloat, remove them from the water with a sieve or a colander and put directly into the bowl with the sauce.
• Gently mix gnocchi into the sauce and add more hot water from the pot if needed. 
• Serve in a plate topped with guanciale, sprinkle extra cheese directly on top and pepper to taste.