Easy Amatriciana

Easy Amatriciana sauce: a simple take on this pasta sauce from Lazio, using ingredients that can be readily purchased in any supermarket.

In truth, Amatriciana is a pretty simple sauce to make but like a lot of recipes, the odd hard-to-find ingredient required to make an “authentic” version can be off-putting. In this case, for example, it may be the guanciale (cured pork cheek) and pecorino romano cheese that can be substituted. Yes, you can use pancetta and you can use parmesan instead of pecorino and even spaghetti instead of bucatini – the goal is a delicious dinner, right? After all, we’re not proposing tomato ketchup instead of tinned tomatoes.

Speaking generally, sacrificing a touch of authenticity can still lead to a result that is both delicious and easy to make while avoiding hair-tearing trips to multiple shops or online searches to buy an ingredient at expense that will no doubt end up half used in the back of the fridge, or languishing in a cupboard.

More importantly, understanding what the flavours are about and what role each ingredient plays in any dish enables you, the cook, to choose sensible substitutes. We may never make a case for this as an “authentic” recipe, and indeed I do not even intend to begin such a debate.

However, as I understand it, every cook (and cookery writer too; see notes below) in Italy has their own version of the country’s famous dishes, so you can have yours too. So let’s not labour in a futile quest for a nebulous sense of authenticity but instead revel in the deliciousness.

I usually make this for 2 so the following recipe makes 2 portions, but it can readily be doubled. The proportion of pancetta may be somewhat higher than in some recipes but this is simply to use a whole pre-packed portion and avoid waste.

Amatriciana Sauce

Ingredients (for 2)

• 1tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 small onion, finely diced
• 75g diced guanciale* or pancetta (1 portion of a 2-portion pack)
• 1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes
• Splash of white wine (optional)
• Pinch of chilli flakes
• 150g-200g dried Bucatini or Spaghetti
• Salt & Pepper
• 50g freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Method

1. Heat the oil over medium heat in a sauté pan and  gently fry the onion till it starts to soften, without colouring.
2. Add the diced pancetta or guanciale and continue to fry, stirring occasionally, till the fat is rendered out and the onion is soft and sweet.
3. If using, add a splash of white wine and reduce. If the tomatoes are quite tart, omit the wine or add a pinch of sugar when checking the seasoning later.
4. Add the tomatoes and the chilli (if using) and simmer gently for about 15-20 minutes.
5. While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil, and add the pasta. Cook according to pack instructions or personal taste as preferred.
6. Check the seasoning of the sauce – some black pepper perhaps, but extra salt is likely to be unnecessary.
7. Drain the pasta and tip it into the pan with the sauce.
8. Before mixing, add about half of the grated cheese onto the pasta  then mix well to ensure a good coating of sauce.
9. Serve the pasta on heated plates and add a good scattering of the remaining cheese over each portion.

* available at Waitrose (at time of writing).

Notes

There are of course many, many recipes for bucatini all’Amatriciana available online with numerous combinations of ingredients – no onion, prosciutto instead of pancetta and so on. In these instances, I like to consult some authoritative sources. Do you think that when turning to the bookshelf for some works on Italian food we will reach consensus on an authentic recipe?  Let’s see…

Firstly, we turn to Marcella Hazan’s The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Her recipe recommends bucatini as the pasta with a sauce comprising pancetta, onion, tinned tomatoes, chopped chilli and both parmesan and pecorino cheeses. She notes that some cooks add white wine but she omits it as it she finds it too acidic.

Next up is the hefty Italian culinary tome The Silver Spoon. Here the concise recipe is listed with spaghetti, pancetta, onion, fresh tomatoes, fresh chopped chilli and, remarkably, no cheese.

Finally is the recipe that I think was the starting point for my little variation, by the late, great Antonio Carluccio in the book and TV series Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy. His recipe for bucatini all’Amatriciana uses guanciale, onion, chopped dried red chilli, white wine and fresh San Marzano tomatoes, finished with pecorino cheese.

Check out more ideas as and when they appear in the recipes category.