Nigella Lawson Invokes the Wrath of Italians Everywhere By Adding Cream to Carbonara

Nigella Lawson might want to steer clear of Italy for the foreseeable future, because a lot of pasta-loving people in that country are livid over a spaghetti carbonara recipe that she posted to Facebook earlier this week. Her version of this dish, an homage to a scene from the Jack Nicholson/Meryl Streep dramedy Heartburn, involves cream and nutmeg, which are considered persona non grata to carbonara purists. Here’s the post that stirred up a lot of emotions among the Italians:

One of her followers writes: “Using a name of a well known recipe, adjusting the original ingredients to one’s own taste and even adding others just creates confusion and wrong taste expectations. Yes, we take food very seriously.” Another commenter remarks: “Nigella you are a wonderful woman but your recipes are the DEATH of Italian recipes, literally! NO CREAM IN CARBONARA NEVER,only eggs.“ And one Facebook user really digs in: “Nigella, there are many cuisines in the world that need tarting up with cream, the best cuisine in the world, namely Italian does not need you to ruin it!”

These are but a small selection of the hundreds comments that this post has racked up in less than 36 hours, and people are also taking to Twitter to voice their frustrations with this recipe:

Of course, this is not the first carbonara recipe to draw ire from traditionalists, and it likely won’t be the last, either. But if you’ve got a recipe for pasta with eggs and crispy pork bits, and you don’t want to be met by an angry mob of Italians on social media, perhaps consider using the words “inspired by” or “a riff on” in the name of your dish.

And for more hilarious examples of Italians getting mad about recipes, please check out @italiancomments.

• 'An outrage to Italian cuisine': Nigella Lawson angers Italians with her controversial carbonara recipe [Telegraph]
• Nigella Lawson [Facebook]