Italians are furious at Nigella Lawson for her Carbonara recipe

Nigella Lawson is a celebrity of chef of no half measures.

If you've ever made one of her desserts you'll know how much cream she likes to add to everything.

However, she has offended Italians by suggesting that it goes into a Carbonara sauce.

Her recipe, recently shared on her Facebook page, includes the following evocative intro:

I think spaghetti carbonara is what Meryl Streep cooks for Jack Nicholson in the film version of one of my favourite books, 'Heartburn', and it is so right, for that chin-dripping, love-soaked primal feast, the first time someone actually stays through the night.

Yes, I know a whole pack of spaghetti is far too much for two, but I want that whole panful lugged back to the bedroom.

No namby-pamby mimsy little plated arrangement.

So you'll have leftovers?

Just work up an appetite for them later.

ARE YOU REVVED UP? For food, of course.

Serving two, the ingredients include:

• 500 grams spaghetti
• 275 grams cubed pancetta (or lardons)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 60 millilitres dry white wine (or vermouth)
• 4 large eggs
• 50 grams parmesan cheese (freshly grated)
• black pepper
• 60 millilitres double cream
• freshly grated nutmeg

People were obviously angry that someone had the temerity to add cream to the Carbonara sauce, seen as a cardinal sin by the Italians:

Nigella has dealt with the furore previously, admitting the use of cream to be crime, creditably:

Crumbs.

It's not the first time Brits have been accused of ruining pasta.

Last year top chef Antonio Carluccio, founder of the restaurant chain of his namesake, said the Brits used superfluous herbs and vegetables in a bolognese:

When you think Italy, you start to put oregano, basil, parsley, garlic, which is not at all right.

You should do this: oil, onion, two types of meat – beef and pork – and you practically brown this, then you put the tomatoes, then a bit of wine, including tomato paste, and then you cook it for three hours.

That is it. Nothing else.

Grate parmesan on the top and Bob’s your uncle.

Also you should be using tagliatelle, not spaghetti.

You heathens.

HT Telegraph

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