We interrupt the riveting recount of my sojourn to the Bay Area to bring you this irresistible recipe. San Francisco posts will resume tomorrow.
But now…I present… PASTA ALL’AMATRICIANA!
How I came to make this dish is sort of a long story. It starts with Food Network Humor. FNH is a website run by two sisters who like to make fun of The Food Network. The ribbing is done with (some) love and it’s (mostly) good natured. Most people who love food like I do watch the food network for hours on end and sometimes the ridiculousness of it all can get to you. These sarcastic ladies point out all the funny stuff you see and make it even funnier. They also have a podcast which I adore but enough gushing.
The FNH ladies love Anne Burrell of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef. I had never really watched that show but I decided to give it a chance. The first episode I watched featured Pasta All’Amatriciana. It’s a beautiful mouthful, try it: Ahl-Ah-Mah-Treech-Eee-Ah-Nahh. Ooooo I love it! This dish looked so amazing, it cemented in my brain and I couldn’t stop saying the name and thinking about the luscious ingredients: guanciale, onion, olive oil, pasta, tomato, romano (or parmigiano, I’m not a total purist.)
I knew the hardest part of this dish would be finding guanciale, cured pork cheek. Lucky for me, I live in L.A. where you can find ANYTHING if you are willing to look hard enough and sit in traffic. A quick googlin’ led me to Guidi Marcello, an Italian importer in Santa Monica that mostly supplies restaurants but has a tiny hidden showroom that makes you feel like you entered a portal to Italy. If it’s Italian, they have it. I could go on but I will spare you. Suffice it to say, I got my guanciale for $13/lb. BUCKETS less than any other place I could find.
I also got Italian gluten free pasta made from corn and a few cans of my beloved San Marzano tomatoes.
I went home and got to cookin’ and what I ended up with was one of the best pasta dishes I have ever had, anywhere. I even used too much red pepper and the sweat was coming out of my eyeballs but I still finished every bite. Guanciale is magic. The spices it’s cured with permeate the final sauce with deep herbal flavor and richness. Perfecto!
Ingredients:
- 4-5 oz guanciale cut into lardons
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 small, 2 medium or 1 very large onion, diced
- 1-2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 28 oz can San Marzano whole plum tomatoes, roughly chopped or put through a food mill
- 1/2 lb gluten free ziti pasta (the glutinous recipe calls for bucatini but I have never seen a gluten free bucatini. I like the bite and heft of ziti but spaghetti would be great too)
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese (I didn’t have romano and I prefer parmigiano so I went with that)
Directions:
Cut guanciale into lardons (lardons are rectangular strips that are a bit shorter and thicker than a julienne.)
Drizzle olive oil into a cold, heavy botomed pan and add guanciale.
Cook over medium heat until guanciale is crispy but not completely browned.
Remove 1/3 of the guanciale and set aside to use as garnish.
Add diced onion and red pepper flakes and increase heat to medium high. Cook until onions are buttery soft and begin to brown.
Process tomatoes through a food mill. This separates the meat and juice of the tomato from the skin and seeds.
If you don’t have a food mill, roughly chop the tomatoes and remove the stems and any skins.
Pour the tomato puree into the pot with the guanciale and onions. Increase heat and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook, uncovered for one hour. It will look a bit thin at first but trust me, it will thicken up to the perfect consistency if you leave it alone, just stir every one in awhile to keep it from sticking.
Cook pasta according to package directions.
Remove 2-3 ladles of sauce and set aside. Drain the pasta and quickly add it to the sauce in the pot.
Mix well then toss in a handful of grated cheese and an extra drizzle of olive oil. If the ratio of pasta to sauce is to your liking, plate now. If not, add some of your reserved sauce until you get the perfect ratio.
Plate in a shallow bowl then top each serving with parmesan and the reserved crispy lardons. Take a bite and faint. Wake up and eat the rest.
