Pasta all'Amatriciana

I love coincidence, serendipity, twists of fate—all that stuff. One day a friend e-mails me a link to this Mark Bittman article about a traditional pasta dish and the all-but-impossible-to-find meat (guanciale in Italian—cured pig jowl) that's used in it. Sounds delish. I decide I might try it sometime, using pancetta or thickly sliced bacon in place of the guanciale.The next day Stan (of Triple S Farm, where we get our meat) e-mails me the list of products from which I make our monthly meat order. On the list? A new item called cured jowl. This is too good to be true, think I, adding a pound of it to the order form.

One recent weekend, I make the pasta. We love it and eat mass quantities. Keith dubs it the pig-face pasta.

The day after I make the dish, I'm e-mailing with my friend Simona (of Briciole), and she tells me that she also made pasta all'Amatriciana over the weekend.

Something had to be done. Simona and I decided to write about our adventures with Amatriciana and put up our posts at the same time. In addition, Simona knew of a blog event called Festa Italiana, and she suggested we take our twin pastas to that (you can never have too much pasta all'Amatriciana at a party).

You'll want to read Simona's post describing how to make this pasta. She was also lucky enough to find guanciale (in Oakland, CA—hers looks like it's peppered), and her recipe is even simpler than mine. You get the added bonus of hearing Simona pronounce many of the Italian words associated with this dish, since hers is a food blog with audio!

I searched out many recipes for pasta all'Amatriciana for comparison's sake. At first I wasn't finding it in my cookbooks, because it was invariably indexed not under its Italian name but its English one: "Bucatini with pancetta, tomatoes, and hot pepper." (Bucatini, by the way, seems to be the pasta of choice for this dish, and I found it at World Harvest. It's similar to spaghetti, but it has a hole in the middle.)

Several of the recipes I found included fresh garlic, but neither Marcella Hazan's nor Biba Caggiano's did, so I went without. Their recipes called for just a pinch of red pepper flakes, whereas Bittman's suggested a half-teaspoonful, and the latter amount is what I used. MH called for far less tomato than others did; I used the larger amount so as to be sure to have enough sauce to coat a pound of pasta (I found it to be just right). Both Italian authors used much more oil than did Bittman; I went with the more-fat-is-better philosophy.

Oh—and I did double the amount of guanciale called for in all of the recipes I consulted, which I'm sure would scandalize the Italian cooks; however, I am an American living in the heart of meat country, after all.

Bucatini all'Amatriciana
Based on recipes by Marcella Hazan, Biba Caggiano, and Mark Bittman

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 pound guanciale, in 1-inch slivers 1/4-inch thick
28-ounce can whole tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes, or to taste
Salt
1/4 cup freshly grated best-quality Parmesan cheese (I sprang for Parmigiano Reggiano)
1/4 cup freshly grated aged Romano pecorino cheese plus more for serving
1 pound bucatini

Heat oil and butter in a 12-inch skillet. Add onion and sauté over medium heat until transparent. Add guanciale and sauté until barely beginning to brown.Add tomatoes, breaking them up with your hands. Stir in the hot pepper flakes and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Cook over medium heat, uncovered. The sauce is done when the tomatoes and the cooking fats separate, about 25 minutes.Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add bucatini and cook until still very firm. Drain and transfer to skillet. Fold the pasta and tomato sauce together until the pasta is well-coated. Fold in the cheese. Taste for salt and spiciness and serve with more cheese on the side.
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This pasta was, to me, a real comfort food. The warmth of the peppers, the creaminess and slight bite of the cheese, the smoothness of the tomato and butter, and the chewiness and rich flavor of the "bacon" all added up to a delightful gustatory experience that I plan to repeat often. And I'm so glad I discovered bucatini, which I don't remember having had before.

While it may not be my absolute, most-favorite Italian dish, as requested by Maryann and Marie, it is without doubt now a favorite, and I'm happy to put it on the Festa Italiana table. Check out Proud Italian Cook and Finding la Dolce Vita sometime after March 22nd to see the Festa Italiana round-up and what will undoubtedly be a tonload of great recipes for and photos of Italian eats.

Buon appetito, everyone!