What do you eat in the Vatican on Christmas Eve? We find out thanks to "The Vatican Christmas Cookbook" by the cook of the Swiss Guards who opens the doors of the papal kitchens to us and reveals this "hybrid" recipe
Recipes from all over the world arrive in the Vatican and since the Swiss guards must be Swiss, there are many Swiss recipes. Even at Christmas, the Italian recipes are all revisited, because after all the Vatican is a foreign land and not a district of Rome. Among these, collected in the book The Vatican Christmas Cookbook by David Geisser there is also the recipe for papal fettuccine on Christmas Eve. What are? The fusion of two very popular Italian firsts: carbonara and peas, cream and ham. Forgive them ladies because they don't know what they are doing.
Ingredients
500 g of fresh fettuccine
220 g of raw ham
120 g green peas
1 sweet onion
120 g pecorino romano
3 egg yolks
80 g of cooking cream
Oil
salt
Abundant pepper
Method
Boil the peas in salted water for a few minutes and set them aside. Cut the onion thin and fry it in a pan with the oil. When it becomes translucent, add the ham cut into thin strips and cook until it becomes just crisp. Boil the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, add the peas and cream to the pan and mix gently. Taste if salt is good, it will depend on the ham you have chosen. Beat the three egg yolks together with the pecorino and pepper. Add the fettuccine to the sauce, remove from heat, add the egg and pecorino mixture and stir. Serve immediately hot.
Text by Jacopo Giavara, Margo Schachter