Spaghetti all’Amatriciana

Written by Published on in Meat Dishes, Pasta dishes

Recently I found something that I was looking for a long time: Pork Jowl! I have been scouring various grocery store, specialty stores and the internet looking for an elusive ingredient: Guanciale. Unfortunately I have to say that I still haven’t found the true Italian guanciale however I did find something similar.

While browsing the bacon section in WinCo, I stumbled upon pork jowl, which guanciale is literally translated to. The difference is however that guanciale is cured with various herbs where as traditional pork jowl is smoked. In my case, it was apple-wood smoked. Unfortunately I had no other options for making this dish so I had to make do with the ingredients I had.

Spaghetti all’Amatriciana is a traditional dish originating from the town of Amatrice in the province of Rieti in the Lazio region. It is characterized with a bold taste that combines the strong flavors of guanciale, pecorino romano cheese and red chili pepper.

For the recipe, I based it directly from the official recipe as released by the Commune of Amatrice website and made a few modifications based on ingredient availability. The ratio of pecorino cheese and guanciale is sacred as there is a specific taste profile and the website specifies that. The official recipe also specifies to use pecorino from Amatrice but obviously that is next to impossible to find that here. I also add extra San Marzano tomatoes to make the sauce more saucier as I prefer it like that. Below is the recipe and let us know what you think!

Spaghetti all'Amatriciana
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Spaghetti all’Amatriciana

Recipe by Mamma Mia KitchenCourse: Meat Dishes, Pasta dishesCuisine: Italian, RomanDifficulty: Easy
Servings

4

servings
Prep time

5

minutes
Cooking time

20

minutes
Calories

523

kcal
Total time

25

minutes

A classic from Roman cuisine, this dish originated from the town of Amatrice and features a strong mix of pork jowl, chili pepper, tomato and Pecorino Romano cheese. This dish follows the exact specifications as outlined in the Commune of Amatrice official website with a few tweaks.

Ingredients

  • 500 grams of spaghetti pasta

  • 125 grams of pork jowl

  • 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

  • 9-10 canned and peeled San Marzano tomatoes

  • 100 grams of Pecorino Romano cheese

  • 1 red chili pepper

Directions

  • Slice the pork jowl into thin 1 inch slices.
  • In a frying pan, add the olive oil, pepper, and pork jowl.
  • Cook the pork jowl on a medium-high heat until the pork jowl leaves most of its fat content and becomes slightly crispy.
  • Remove the pork jowl from the pan carefully letting it drip all the fat back into the pan. Set it aside for use later..
  • Add the peeled San Marzano tomatoes to the frying pan removing the stem. Using a spatula crush the tomatoes into a semi-runny pulp.
  • Cook the tomatoes on a medium-high heat for about 3-5 minutes.
  • Remove the chili pepper and then add in the pork jowl.
  • In a separate pot, bring water to a boil.
  • Add a tablespoon of salt to the water.
  • Add the pasta to the water and cook for 10 minutes.
  • Once the pasta is finished, remove the pasta and add it to the sauce.
  • Place about a ladle-full of the water from the pasta to the sauce.
  • Cook the pasta in the sauce for about 2 minutes, mixing constantly to amalgamate the pasta.
  • Add the pecorino cheese and mix well. Buon Appetito!

Notes

  • For this recipe, I used Barilla Spaghetti and Cento San Marzano peeled tomatoes.
 

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