Carbonara day is back again this year, the social marathon promoted by the Italian pasta makers of the Unione Italiana Food. You can participate in the initiative on the web in a very simple way: starting at 12 today, 6 April, you can follow the hashtags #CarbonaraDay and #TheRealCarbonara and try your hand at your own personal recipe on live video. Opinions, photos and advice can be shared on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Pasta alla carbonara between tradition and digressions on the theme
To establish whether the "revisited" carbonaras or traditional recipes are more widespread on the web, the pasta makers of the Unione Italiana Food have commissioned AstraSearch the first Carbonara census in the world. The goal is to focus on the web the most viral trends of revisited pasta alla carbonara. The research was conducted in March based on user-created content on social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) and on the web (through Google Trends). There are over 4.600 contents traced with the hashtag #carbonara, published in more than 20 different languages and accompanied by photography. Also accompanied by a video of a carbonara dish, for a total of over 4,5 million views.
The US and the UK hold the record for the strangest searches on carbonara. In the Nordic countries (in particular Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Romania) and in South-East Asia, carbonara enthusiasts have really indulged themselves with very special preparations. As far as Italy is concerned, a survey conducted by AstraRicerche on a sample of 1.000 Italians (18-65 years old) shows that 7 out of 10 know the necessary ingredients. Carbonara lovers consider among the essential ingredients the jowls, the eggs, the pecorino. But there is no shortage of variations that are always very tasty.
Preparations with typical regional products
For example, there are those who add cream, others pepper and then there are those who prefer this dish with the addition of tomato. And, again, there are those who use ham instead of bacon and also add vegetables such as asparagus, courgettes or peas. In the various regions there are also the typical versions such as the one with the 'nduja in Calabria or with speck in Trentino Alto Adige, or with the Piedmontese hunchback thistle. A basket full of excellent products from our agri-food sector to prepare a dish of pasta known all over the world and which remains a must of the Italian culinary art.
(Photo archive italiani.it)
