Spaghetti Carbonara with Cream and Bacon – the Original Recipe?

Yep! We recreated this recipe (you can too using the recipe below) and it was like a decadent Bacon Mac and Cheese but with spaghetti.. and some egg! Here’s a closer look at the ingredients we used in our recipe and why.

Processed Cheese

Gualandi specifically says he used processed cheese from American rations. Not only that, he says it wasn’t so much the egg in the final dish that the military diners loved but that the dish was bavoso because of the cheese sauce. Bavoso is an Italian word meaning mouthwatering but in a ‘slimy’ way— sounds appetizing, huh!

Modern Velveeta cheese seems to come closest to the processed cheese in American WWII rations. The ration cheese came in Swiss and American flavors and most accounts say both were ‘white’ in color. Processed cheese was….

• shelf stable — even today, Velveeta is not refrigerated in the groceries!
• melts easily and evenly

In Italy, we couldn’t find Velveeta when we were re-creating this dish. So instead, we used a product called ‘Formaggino Mio’ in Parmigiano flavor. This product is similar to Velveeta in consistency and is not refrigerated in many groceries (shelf stable). It comes in different flavors, but the Parmigiano has the tang that mimics a processed American or Swiss cheese.

American Bacon

Chef Gualandi also specifically says he used American Bacon. American Bacon was only in K-Rations as bacon bits in processed cheese. However, Gualandi would have likely had access to canned sliced (pre-cooked) bacon in other rations (B, 5-in-1).

You can certainly find pre-cooked bacon today. But, we just fried our own instead of using canned bacon. Gualandi would not have had the bacon grease if he was using pre-cooked bacon.

However you’ll definitely want to leave that bacon grease in the pan to add extra flavor to your Spaghetti Carbonara with Cream and Bacon! The traditional Spaghetti Carbonara recipe does in fact rely on grease from the guanciale to flavor the pasta!

Powdered Egg Yolks

In the WWII Carbonara with Cream and Bacon and Eggs, Chef Gualandi specifically says he used powdered egg yolks from the military rations.

This is historically credible! Powdered eggs were abundant in WWII military camps. They were considered so important to the food war effort, that the US military made this video to brag about what a scientific achievement they were!

Powdered eggs were shelf-stable (didn’t require refrigeration) and they could be shipped abroad for a fraction of the cost. Then, military cooks just rehydrated them for use when preparing fresh meals for the troops in camp.

We used Pasteurized Egg Yolks instead!

We looked everywhere, but could not find powdered egg yolks in Italy. Instead, we purchased a carton of commercially pasteurized egg yolks. Just like egg whites, these eggs are sold in the refrigerated section of the supermarket.

In this way, we could simulate rehydrated powdered eggs. Plus? They are already pasteurized! So, no need to worry about foodborne illness.

What’s the problem with fresh egg yolks?

Eggs that aren’t thoroughly cooked do carry the risk of foodborne illness like salmonella. In fact, the yolks of eggs have more risk of bacteria than the whites.

The FDA recommends heating eggs to a temperature of 160° F in order to be safe from foodborne illness. This is pretty easy to do at home with egg whites (especially if sugar is added). You can pretty easily pasteurize the egg whites and they remain liquid-y. But with egg yolks, pasteurizing at home without special tools is more challenging.

It’s especially difficult to heat the carbonara sauce to this temperature without cooking the eggs—and ending up with clumpy sauce. However, if you use a sous vide or another machine that can continuously whisk the eggs while maintaining a specific temperature, it can be done. We’ll address this technique in another post.

The Verdict?

Well, can totally see why this Spaghetti Carbonara with Cream and Bacon would have been loved by the American generals and troops! It’s real comfort food, as the Americans say. It was creamy and super tasty! Have a look:

The processed cheese is of course famous for even melting. By adding the butter and cream, we have an emulsion that creates the perfect creamy Carbonara sauce! In this sense, this WWII Carbonara recipe is much easier for beginners than the traditional Spaghetti Carbonara recipe which requires some attention to detail to create a creamy sauce with the aged Pecorino cheese, egg yolk and starchy pasta water.

Should we call this Pasta Carbonara?

Well, as we said this is NOT in any sense the Spaghetti Carbonara that Italians consider traditional today. The strong pecorino flavor is sorely missed here and there’s no guanciale.

In fact, it’s no stretch to say this Carbonara recipe is the nightmare of most modern Italians, who detest how those abroad add ingredients like butter, cream and bacon to pasta that they then call Carbonara.

What we do have here? The origin of the recipes that Americans other countries call Carbonara today! In most of those dishes, pecorino cheese can be barely felt. Sometimes it is clear that another milder cheese has been used to make the sauce. And of course, almost all of these Carbonara recipes have heavy cream and bacon.

In short, this dish was super tasty. However, whether we want to call it Carbonara or not depends on if we believe this origin story. If we do, then perhaps the American-style Carbonara is closer to the original Carbonara!

On the other hand, if we think that pecorino cheese and guanciale are must-haves in anything we label Pasta Carbonara, we probably want to look to other origin stories for this famous dish.

Whatever you choose to call it, we highly recommend you give this cheesy pasta with bacon a try!

---

Discover More Cheesy Italian Food Recipes

---

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. This means at no extra cost to you, PIATTO may earn a small commission if you click the links and make a qualifying purchase.

---