Taste buds journey

Passport & Plate - Pasta all'Amatriciana

Italy | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
- One onion
- Guanciale - the official recipe is with pancetta, but I prefer guanciale because it has a better taste, stronger and makes a perfect balance in the overall dish. All the ingredients are pretty plain and actually the dish itself is pretty plain, but this is why I use this particular type of meat
- Tagliatelle – again, I think that the official recipe is with spaghetti, but I prefer tagliatelle. Although, the very first time I cooked this dish was with spaghetti.
- Pecorino
- Tomato juice
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Chilli – this is my second special condiment to this recipe. I like spicy foods and chilli goes just perfectly with this type of pasta

 

How to prepare this recipe
The first thing you need to do is to put the water to boil and start cutting the onion and the guanciale. After they are cut, they need to be put in a pan for stir frying with some olive oil. After they get cooked, add the tomato juice. In the meantime, the water should have started boiling so first add some salt into the water, stir a bit until the salt dissolves and then add the tagliatelle.Lower the fire for both of them. Leave both the sauce and the pasta to cook. Remember though that tagliatelle cook pretty fast and you do not need to boil them until they become white. It should take around maximum 6 minutes for them to be perfectly cooked. After they cook, drain the water from the pasta, but make sure you save some of it. This is a secret my Italian fiancé taught me: this water is perfect if you need to add something if the sauce became too dry. Also, it makes the sauce creamier. Add chilli, pepper and salt to the sauce according to your taste and then mix them together. If you think the sauce is a bit too dry, add some of the wateryou boilt the pasta in. Afterwards, add also some grated pecorino directly into the pasta and mix some more. All you have to do now is to put it on a plate and start eating.

 

The story behind this recipe
I tried this pasta for the first time in December 2013. My fiancé had to go to Rome for 2weeks for a training and I was just starting my winter break then, so I decided to go with him. This type of pasta is specific for Rome. And before going there, I did my research and I have checked the types of dishes they do and how. I must have got my hopes high. In the 2weeks there, I tried this pasta at least 4 times in different places. Every time I was disappointed. I couldn't understand why doesn't it taste good. It's a simple recipe with good ingredients, what could not be to like? And still, the more I had it, the more I disliked it. Sometimes the sauce was too dry and tasteless or it had a weird consistency added to no taste at all. I was sad and disappointed.
Time passed and I forgot about it. We got busy with planning our wedding and I got myself into cooking and baking other things. One weekend though, we had to go to my fiancé’s countryside house with his dad. They had to work around the house for the entire day, so we stopped in a supermarket to buy foodfor lunch. For some reason, my fiancé asked me: ‘Why don’t you try to do pasta all’ Amatriciana?’ I said why not and started to look for the ingredients, but when we had to pick up the meat, he suggested me to use guanciale as it is tastier. I never had it before, but I trusted him.
Lunch time came so I started cooking, while the guys were working. I didn't know much about this recipe, but I decided to go with my intuition, add love and the required ingredients. As they've been working for hours, I cooked more than usual. I was done, I set the table and told them to come. When they started eating, not only that my fiancé was surprised by how good they tasted, but his father’s reaction stroke me the most.He likes grumbling about food. Seeing him enjoying it so much and hearing him saying‘Molto buono'(Very good) warmed my heart. I always cook for my fiance, but I've never seen him enjoying food as much as then.