BUCATINI ALL'AMATRICIANA

Entree

1 lb Italian Bucatini
4 oz pancetta, diced
1 14-oz can Italian peeled San Marzano tomatoes, roughly chopped, with their sauce
4 tbsp pecorino romano, grated
1 pinch hot pepper flakes
1/4 cup dry white wine


Bring a big pot (better taller than wider) with water to a boil.

In the meantime put a big saucepan on high heat and sautee the pancetta with hot pepper flakes for about 2 minutes, than add wine and let the alcohol evaporate.

Add tomatoes, lower the heat to medium, cover with a lid and cook for about 10 more minutes.

When the water boils, add salt (Italian coarse sea salt is better, because you'll use less) and pasta; cook for 8-10 minutes.

Drain pasta and reserve a few tablespoons of the cooking water; toss the pasta in the skillet with the sauce and sautee for a couple minutes. If the sauce is too thick, add some of the reserved cooking water. You can also take it out of the water as I do in the video, and transfer directly into the saucepan: this way, most likely, there will be enough humidity on the pasta.

Serve drizzled with grated pecorino romano.

This recipe serves 4 people.

- This recipe is the original from Amatrice, town in Rieti province (not far from Rome) and should be prepared with guanciale (cured pork cheek). I've never been able to find it here in the U.S. so I prepared it with pancetta. Also, this pancetta is the rolled one, then diced at the source: the actual pancetta should be flat (like bacon but way less fat).
- I like onion, so I added 1/4 cup of roughly chopped onions, that I sauteed with pancetta and hot pepper flakes at the beginning.
- In case your pancetta is not too fat, use 1 tbsp Italian extra virgin olive oil, I did it
- Always cook pasta al dente, NEVER overcook it: it will raise your blood sugars more and it will be more difficult to digest.
- If you don't like pecorino, you can use Parmigiano reggiano (even though the purists will not like it ;-))