Pasta carbonara is a dish that we have quite often in our household. My husband’s aunt also married an Italian and whenever she comes back to England she has a block of parmigiano in her suitcase.
Last week we had pasta carbonara for dinner. Now that we are here in England, we are not eating pasta in general for lunch, but rather saving it as a meal that we have for dinner. We bought a block of pancetta and chopped that up.
I would say that there is some friendly rivalry – northern Italian based versus central Italy based in the family household. Traditionally we would probably have used pecorino romano in pasta carbonara but last week it was parmigiano reggiano that had been grated from the block and added in quite a substantial quantity to the pasta once it had been cooked. It is yummy whichever cheese you use and no doubt we will continue to eat in with regularity.
The following website ‘Save a Cheese‘ came to my attention this evening. You can purchase a 1kg block of parmigiano reggiano for £22 (it usually retails for £25). This cheese comes from the artisan cheese makers in the Emilia Romagna region that were devastated by earthquakes on the 20th and 29th May 2012. The website states that the cheese will be ready at the end of September, and dispatched in early October. I urge you to support this cause and save some yummy cheese in the process.
