Bucatini Amatriciana
One of the four classic Roman pastas, bucatini amatriciana puts carbonara and cacio e Pepe to shame. A beautiful use of guanciale, tomatoes and pecorino Romano cheese. This pasta is severely underrated and easier to make than its counterparts.
Ingredients
- 225 g guanciale, diced, substitute pancetta or bacon
- 60 g olive oil
- 200 g diced red onion
- 20 g minced garlic
- 20 g Calabrian chiles
- 25 g tomato paste
- 100 g dry white wine
- 400 g crushed tomatoes
- 1 g oregano
- 4 g sugar
- Salt
- 450 g bucatini
- 40 g grated pecorino
Instructions
- Freeze the guanciale for 15 minutes and dice it into ½ inch cubes. In a pot over med heat, add in your guanciale and a splash of water. Cook guanciale, stirring often, for about 10 minutes until it is fully rendered but not browned. if needed add another splash of water to deglaze the pot if it is getting too brown.
- Remove the guanciale and fat from the pot and set aside.
- Return the same pot you rendered the guanciale in to the stove over medium heat. Add in oil, onion, garlic, a pinch of salt and a splash of water. Sweat for 5-10 minutes until the onion and garlic are fully cooked and translucent but not browned.
- Stir in the Calabrian chiles and cook for another 1-2 minutes and add in the tomato paste. Stir and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Deglaze with white wine and reduce to au sec.
- Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, sugar, and salt. Bring the pot to a boil and reduce to a simmer over low heat and cook for another 10 minutes. Be sure to stir the pot every couple minutes or so.
- While the sauce is simmering, bring a pot of water to a boil. Add a strong pinch of salt to the water and boil the bucatini noodles for 9-11 minutes depending on how much bite you want in your noodles.
- When the noodles are cooked to your desired doneness, set aside a cup or so of the pasta water and strain off the noodles. When the noodles are strained off, add the noodles into the sauce along with a splash of pasta water. Give it a few stirs and throw in 40g of pecorino. continue stirring to melt the cheese into the sauce.
- Taste the pasta and check for seasoning and consistency, add more salt, cheese or pasta water and bring it to where it is saucy but not too wet or too dry. Twirl some noodles and sauce into a bowl to serve and top it with more cheese.
Au sec means nearly dry!
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