Bucatini with Amatriciana Sauce

A dish which is a symbol of Lazio regional cooking that occupies one of the leading positions among Italian gastronomic specialities.

  • Time

    27 minutes

  • Difficulty

    Easy

  • Course

    First Courses

  • Italian Region

    Lazio

Ingredients

Servings 4

  • 1 lb bucatini
  • 5 oz guanciale (or bacon), or bacon
  • 3 tomatoes, ripened
  • 1 chili pepper, red
  • 1 ½ oz Pecorino cheese, grated
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

15 minutes preparation + 12 minutes cooking

Slice the bacon and cut into small rectangles, put into a pan and, with very little water, dissolve the fat. Remove the bacon, blend into the fat the tomatoes peeled, seeded and cut into pieces, season with the crumbled chili, salt lightly and pepper.

Cook for 10 minutes. Then put the bacon back into the sauce, to warm it slightly. Cook the “bucatini”, in salted water until “al dente”, drain them and dress with the Pecorino and the sauce. Mix well and serve hot.

Food history

The Amatriciana sauce takes its name from Amatrice, a small town of the Lazio region in the municipality of Rieti.

The use of tomato for the preparation distinguishes it from gricia, another sauce based on pork cheek (bacon) and pepper. The addition of tomato, linked to the use of long pasta such as “bucatini” (long, hollow tubular pasta) or spaghetti, is a traditionally Italian habit: it was already attested in the early 1800s by the French gourmet Grimond de la Reyniére in his “Almanach des Gourmands”.

Amatriciana sauce is normally served in Rome with “bucatini” and sprinkled with Pecorino Romano sheep’s milk cheese, while in Amatrice it traditionally accompanies spaghetti.

Source: Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library.