Exports of Italian past have risen 16%
despite the COVID emergency, farm group Coldiretti said on
International Carbonara Day Tuesday.
Pasta sales in Italy are also 10% up, it said.
The export boom is however fed by "fake" versions of Carbonara,
such as the culinary crime of adding cream that originated in
Belgium, or the smoky bacon version recently publicised in the
New York Times, Coldiretti said.
As well as committing the offence of using bacon instead of
guanciale (cured pig's cheek or pork tongue), as per the
original recipe, the US version also employs Parmesan, the bogus
clone of Parmigiano Reggiano, instead of the recommended
Pecorino Romano, Coldiretti said.
This proliferation of sub-par imitations of classic Italian food
products is helped by the lack of clear, government protected
recipes, the farmers' association said.
Italian traditionalists insist there are only five carbonara
ingredients: pork tongue, pecorino, eggs, salt and pepper.
Innovators think that, since pasta is such a versatile dish,
there should be no limits on how carbonara can be interpreted,
going as far as "culinary science fiction", according to
detractors.
In France and Germany, for example, powdered ingredients are on
sale for preparing a carbonara; in Britain the egg is often
replaced by bechamel sauce; and in Japan chefs regularly add
cream and take out the pecorino - an affront to tradition
according to purists.
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