It is delicious though
this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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Carbonara is delicious and its definitely not a recent invention
I'm Italian, and trust me: carbonara is not more than 70 years old...
Same thing for tiramisù.
The original inventors of Tiramisu are still alive today.
I hate to break it to you but Norma Pielli died in 2015.
That makes me sad.
Carbonara was invented after WWII to use surplus bacon sent as food aid from the US and primarily served to American servicemen during reconstruction.
It's not even made with bacon, so no
According to Wikipedia, with various sources, allied forces in Italy would often ask for bacon, eggs, and cheese on noodles, called "spaghetti breakfast," so Italian chefs would modify the existing recipe for "pasta cacio e uova," which was originally without meat, to feature cured pork, thus creating the original carbonara.
I didn't see anything to specifically say whether they originally used bacon as the allied forces asked, or used other more traditional forms of cured pork from the start, but now guanciale, a cured pork jowl, is considered the traditional ingredient, though bacon is a common substitute outside of Italy.
There is an Italian historian (Alberto Grandi) that actually agrees with the POV that carbonara was invented for the american occupation and there are no source citing the recipie until the 1950s.
Sorry that history doesn't fit into your world view.