Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Cooking with Rich

2022-08-31T07:05:09+00:00

Yes I am obsessed with pasta and lots of Italian dishes. Amatriciana is one of those recipes that looks simple enough in the beginning but acutely requires the right ingredients to be true to the original.

The original recipe, the one developed by shepherds, was only pasta, cheese and pork. Tomatoes and chillies were added later once these were introduced to Italy from the Americas.

Amatrciana does rely on the flavour of pork cheek, a very fatty cured pork cheek call guanciale. Now where I live it is hard to get and almost impossible to get it in a form that gives the flexibility to cut or slice the way suggested by Italian chef's. Namely, thicker strips between 5-10mm in thickness and about 2-3 cm in length. So I apologies up front to anyone taking note of my indiscretions in this regard. In the absence of guanciale, pancetta can be used, and at a stretch, that will offend and purist, fatty bacon works.

Bucatini all'Amatriciana - Cooking with Rich The other key original ingredients were the pasta of course and the cheese. For the pasta, bucatini is alleged to be the traditional, a thicker spaghetti style long pasta, sometimes called tube spaghetti. Again not something where I live that is usually on the average supermarket shelf, however we can get it thru a couple of specialty online grocers.

The cheese is where traditionalist seem to get pretty fussy. To be authentic you do have to use pecorino, and arguably pecorino from Amatrice. You can guess that is almost impossible to find that in Sth East Asia at a price that makes sense. However Pecorino Romano is easier to find and I dare anyone to tell me the difference once the pasta is dished up. Pecorino is a sheep milk version or parmesan ... yeah I will get blasted for that comparison also.

Having made this dish, badly, many times, I took time to actually research this one properly. There are always nuances to what looks to be a simple dish. And bugger me, don't Italian chef like to heap shit on someone that f*cks around too much with a traditional recipe. So bring it on and heap the shit.

Because I like, what I like, I add a couple extra ingredients, like garlic, a bay leaf and a little white wine, for personal taste mostly. None of these would be considered traditional so I've indicated these in the ingredients list for anyone wanting to ignore or be a little more traditional. And the traditional version I'm talking about is the one after tomatoes and chillies were added.

So have a go and let me know.

Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Preparation: 15 mins | Cooking Time: 20-25 mins | Serves: 4 adults | Skill Level: Easy-Medium

Ingredients

* indicates optional or not traditional ingredient

500g of bucatini, or your favourite pasta
600ml of pasta water
500g passata or finely chopped tinned tomatoes (see tips)
200g guanciale cut into chunky strips (cured pork cheek, see alternatives)
1-2 small chillies
150g of grated pecorino romano
1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
70 ml of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
150ml of white wine*
1 onion chopped*
1 large or 2 small bay leaves*
1 garlic clove finely chopped*

Method

Add about 400ml of water per 100g of pasta to a large pot, add some salt and cook the pasta 1-2 mins less than recommend time, retaining the 600ml of pasta water.
In a heavy based pan add chillies and guanciale (or alternative) with the onion and garlic (if using)
Cooked for about 5-8 mins until the fat starts to melt/render.
Add the passata, pepper, and if using, white wine, bay leaves and 1 cup (~250ml) of the pasta water and simmer on medium low to reduce, about 10-15 mins, if it gets too dry simply add a little more of the pasta water.
Add the pasta, and 3/4 of the pecorino and gently stir through the sauce and allow to continue to cook 3-4 mins.
Plate and serve with a little more pecorino cheese to garnish.

Tips & Alternatives

Passata is basically super smooth tomato, strained of seeds and skin. Readily available these days in supermarkets, however if you have a couple of spare tins of whole peeled Italian tomatoes, strain them, and then blend them to a fine consistency.
Guanciale is hard to get where I live, so a more readily alternative is pancetta, gunaciale is pork cheek and pancetta is pork belly, so there is a real difference. You can also get away with using streaky bacon, however, the flavours will definitely be different.
White wine and bay leaves, onion and garlic are definitely not considered traditional, but they do add to the overall flavour, at least for me. So traditionalists would argue my recipe is not real Amatrciana.
Bucatini, tube spaghetti is considered the most authentic, and I must admit is does add to the texture of the dish as a thicker style spaghetti. However, any pasta you have or prefer can be combined with the sauce, in particular penne seems to work well for this.

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