Maialino in New York City is what you might call a big- city trattoria. Like many of the best restaurants operating in New York now, Maialino serves a polished version of rustic food, a marriage of styles perfectly embodied by its signature table covering: a homey blue-white checked cloth under a customary fine-dining white tablecloth.
When my wife and I dined there recently we enjoyed the suckling pig (“maialino” is Italian for suckling pig), roasted with its crispy, salty skin and served in a portion big enough to feed six people, braised, compressed, then breaded and fried as a cutlet served with lentils, a poached egg and a salad of impeccably fresh mizuna.
As good as the suckling pig was, the dishes that haunted us were the pastas: the best spaghetti with clams I’ve ever eaten, made with tiny, delicate, bluish local clams; the prototypical Roman tonnarelli cace e pepe, a deceptively simple pasta made with guanciale, olive oil, two kinds of pecorino and a ton of fresh black pepper; a lovely malfatti with a hint of tomato sauce and braised oxtail, its flavor rounded out with what we cooks call “secret ingredients” (in this case a touch of cocoa powder and red wine vinegar); and an exemplary pasta carbonara.
Most of the carbonaras I’ve tasted (and made) have been heavy, sticky pastas loaded with cream and cheese, closer probably to an Alfredo than a proper Roman carbonara. Nick Anderer, the boyish, unpretentious and prodigiously talented chef of Maialino, uses neither cream nor peas in his pasta carbonara. The secret to his carbonara — and most of his pastas — is the starchy, salty cooking water that he uses to cook the pasta in. Combined with the fat in the pasta sauce — usually olive oil, the renderings from cured pork and cheese — it makes the ideal emulsion for coating the pasta and marrying the sauce with the pasta, which is the goal of any good pasta dish.
As for the proper amount of pasta water to add to any dish, Chef Anderer told me: “Just when you think you’ve added enough, add a little more.”
John Broening cooks at Duo and Olivea restaurants in Denver.
Spaghetti Carbonara
Serves 4.
Ingredients
1 pound dried durum wheat pasta, such as De Cecco
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 ounces thinly sliced pancetta or guanciale, chopped
About 1 1/2cups freshly grated pecorino romano, plus more for the table
3 egg yolks
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
In a 2-gallon pot, bring 6 quarts of water to rolling boil with about N quarter cup of salt. Sprinkle the pasta into the boiling water and stir well (this will keep the pasta from sticking together) and cover with a lid. When the water comes back to a boil, remove the lid and stir again.
Meanwhile, in a large saute pan big enough to hold the pasta, heat the olive oil over medium heat and stir in the pancetta or guanciale. Cook until just crispy and turn off the heat.
When the pasta is still al dente (taste a piece, it should have a firm bite without being raw), quickly drain it into a colander, reserving some of the cooking water and making sure that some of the cooking water still clings to the pasta. Quickly stir the pasta into the saute pan (the flame should be off but the oil should still be warm), stirring in about 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking water. Toss in the cheese, salt and lots of freshly ground pepper. Add the egg yolks and toss to mix. The pasta should be moist (but not wet) and saucy.
Serve immediately with fresh pepper and additional cheese at the table.
