What means all’ amatriciana?
Wikipedia says it’s simply pasta w/ tomatoes, bacon & pecorino from the Italian town of Amatrice – made w/ spaghetti.
My travel companion wrote that it’s one of the distinguished pasta dishes of Roman cuisine … made w/ bucatini.
During our Rome adventure I had bucatini all’ amatriciana for dinner: it was delicious!
Back home I decided to give it a try in my kitchen … (after consulting my cookbooks …)
Starting with analyzing the list of ingredients … in the various recipes … I chose a simple approach:
- rigatoni
- pancetta
- canned peeled tomatoes
- shallots
- fresh thyme
- pecorino.
Step 1: Chop & fry the pancetta. As soon as the pancetta is crisp put it aside.
Step 2: Chop & fry the shallots in some olive oil together w/ the fresh thyme.
(You may use the same pan as for the bacon. Don’t be stingy w/ the thyme.)
Step 3: As soon as shallots get soft add the tomatoes & mash them. Add some sugar & a pinch of chili (either ground chili or chili flakes or a crushed dried chili pepper (w/o the pits!)).
Then simply let it simmer for a while.
Step 4: Cook the rigatoni. While cooking & the sauce is simmering grate the pecorino.
(If the sauce seems to become too dry just add 1-2 tbsp of pasta cooking water.)
Step 5: Discard the thyme.
Step 6: Drain the rigatoni & dump them in the sauce. Mix well. Add about the half of the crispy bacon. Mix well.
Step 7: Transfer the mess in a bowl. Add the pecorino & mix well. The pecorino starts melting in the hot mess – immediately.
Step 8: Add the rest of the crispy bacon & mix.
Serve immediately!
At this moment you may think that it seems a little dry… however, each rigatoni is full of tomato flavour, the melted pecorino sticks around. There is no soup-like sauce – & the dish doesn’t need a soup-like sauce!
Another point: I didn’t use any salt or pepper. The salt comes by the pancetta as well as the pecorino. Pepper is not recommended by the recipe – I think you don’t need it. (Ok – if you are a salt afficionado or afficionada you may add some salt… maybe also some more chili, however, this dish isn’t meant to be hot & spicy!)
Enjoy!
- 100 g pancetta
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 shallott
- 2-3 twigs fresh thyme
- 200 g canned peeled tomatoes
- a pinch of sugar
- a pinch of chili
- 200 g rigatoni
- 100 g pecorino
- Chop the pancetta & fry in a pan until crisp. Set aside.
- Chop the shallot.
- Add olive oil to the pan & fry the shallot & the fresh thyme.
- Add tomatoes & crush them.
- Add sugar & chili.
- Let it simmer.
- Cook the rigatoni.
- If the sauce seems too thick just add some pasta water (1-2 tbsp).
- Grate the pecorino roughly.
- Drain the rigatoni.
- Discard the thyme.
- Mix rigatoni & half of the pancetta w/ the tomato sauce.
- Transfer in a bowl.
- Add the pancetta & the rest of the grated pecorino.
- Mix & serve immediately.
