Amatriciana pasta is a tasty variation on the classic tomato pasta.
It's a notorious dish from Lazio (in particular Amatrice), which adds Roman Pecorino cheese (sheep cheese)
and Guanciale (pork cheek) as base ingredients.
It's probably the most straightforward of the “Big 4s” of Roman pasta recipes,
or at least definitely easier than Carbonara or Cacio e Pepe to make for the
unexperienced.
Let's start!
Ingredients
(Quantities listed here are for 1 person, just multiply everything for the number of people you're going to
cook for)
80 g of spaghetti;
100 g of peeled tomatoes;
~40 g of Guanciale;
Roman Pecorino Cheese to taste;
white wine to taste;
olive oil to taste;
salt to taste.
Steps
Let's heat some salted water for pasta and, in the meantime, cut the guanciale into small, stick-like
pieces.
In a pre-heated pan, put the previously cut guanciale and let it brown for some minutes.
When guanciale has become translucent and a bit crunchy, blend it with white wine and wait until it's
evaporated.
Set the guanciale aside but leave the fat in the pan.
Add the peeled tomatoes to the pan and crush them a little using a wooden spoon.
Season the sauce with salt. Put the spaghetti in the water and let them cook until al dente, while the sauce
thickens.
Add the guanciale to the sauce.
When pasta is ready add it to the sauce and let it absorb the flavour.
Plate and sprinkle our spaghetti with a generous grating of pecorino romano.
