A dimly lit osteria, an order mishap and a spaghetti all'amatriciana.
Plus a plug for my friend's brilliant food art project.
This week I made spaghetti all’amatriciana, a humble pasta proving yet again that the simplicity of Roman cooking is the ultimate comfort. The first time I ate a proper all’amatriciana was in Testaccio, Rome. It was late when we arrived at the dimly lit osteria, there was no warm welcome and the only other table was a big group of men eating fava beans with chunks of pecorino. We eyed over the traditional menu before ordering a couple of classic roman pasta dishes. I remember ordering the pasta alla gricia, but what ended up arriving to the table was the all’amatriciana. At first I was disappointed and (embarrassingly) tried to explain the mishap to the waiter. I had read a lot about alla gricia and was desperate to try it, plus I had never gotten too excited by pasta amatriciana on a menu back home. Over broken English, the waiter was stern that this was my order and walked away. What followed was the most beautiful experience of salty, fatty tomato sauce and sharp pecorino intertwined with tender yet crisp pieces of guanciale. Along with that was an education in the beauty of Italian home cooking. This was unlike any amatriciana I had seen/tried back home- what I had tasted before this was a mix of seared average bacon thrown into a standard tomato sauce. All’amatriciana in Testaccio became an example to me of what happens when you take a few good quality ingredients and treat them with care, adoration and tradition.
On Tuesday when I caught a glimpse of a perfectly marbled chunk of pancetta at the butcher, the memory of that meal I once ate in Testaccio came back to me. Traditionally amatriciana is made with guanciale, however the butcher had none left. What was staring me down through the glass window though was that pancetta. I left the shop with a beautifully wrapped package of 250g and the yearning to make pasta all’amatriciana for dinner. I made the sauce using fresh cherry tomatoes from our garden and very thick spaghetti. We ate the pasta on the porch, with a glass of leftover white wine, a bottle of beer and some dressed rocket.
All’amatriciana - a rough recipe based on what I made for two people -
What you will need -
I used about 2 handfuls of plump ripe cherry tomatoes. I don’t like my sauce to be drowned in red sauce - with a modest amount of tomato and the addition of pasta water and tangy pecorino at the end you will be rewarded with a thin layer of silky sauce to cover your pasta. If you don’t have access to fresh tomatoes, use good quality tinned ones without the juice (about 400g).
250g top quality guanciale or pancetta. You want the cured pork to have a beautifully marbled, high fat content so it renders nicely.
1/2 cup of white wine
70-100g chunk of pecorino
1 fresh red chilli
Salt
Thick spaghetti or bucatini (or rigatoni would be delicious too)
The process -
Roughly chop the tomatoes.
Cut the guanciale/pancetta into short, thick strips.
Begin by putting the cured meat into a large frying pan (no need to add olive oil here, the meat is fatty enough). Taking care not to overcrowd fry over medium-low heat until it renders quite a bit of fat (they should start looking like shimmering jewels), has turned golden and is just a touch crisp.
Pour in the white wine. It will whoosh up, this is normal! Let the wine evaporate for a few moments before adding in the chilli followed by the tomatoes.
Give the pan a stir and let all the ingredients meet. Taste for salt and pepper and season accordingly.
Cook the sauce over a low heat, stirring occasionally to break the tomatoes down until you have been gifted with a rich, thick sauce and the fat is coming through to the surface (about 15-20 minutes).
As the sauce is cooking, bring a pot of water to the boil, add salt (taste your pasta water, it should taste salty like the sea) and add the pasta. Cook the pasta until it is al dente.
Use tongs to lift the pasta directly into the frying pan with the luscious tomato sauce, grate over most of the pecorino, add a small ladle of the pasta water and begin tossing everything together. Add a little more pasta water if the sauce seems at all stiff - the idea is to create a beautifully emulsified sauce by moving the pan around energetically (which brings the starch of the pasta together with the fat in the sauce).
Serve in bowls with extra pecorino grated over the top and a chilled glass of the wine you used earlier.
All’amatriciana - yes it is simple to make but what I have understood with simple dishes is to practice practice practice. Keep making a dish until you know exactly how long to sauté the ingredients for to keep them tender yet crisp; how to perfectly eye the amount of pasta cooking water to splash while shaking the pan in order to create the perfect emulsion. I am excited to keep making this dish, practicing all the time with authentic ingredients until I am satisfied.
A little plug about my friend Gem and her beautiful Food for Everyone Posters-
If you haven’t already heard of Food for Everyone - a project launched by Gemma Leslie - you should open up a new tab and have a little stalk of @foodforeveryone.aus. Then come back and read the last few sentences of this newsletter.
Food for Everyone is a newly created culinary poster shop selling limited-edition posters to raise money for FareShare - an Australian food bank organisation - one poster purchase provides 70 meals. Gem created Food for Everyone amidst the pandemic last year to help bring meals to isolated communities, low-income families, people experiencing homelessness and others who struggle to get by. She was given recipes from local chefs and cooks and turned them into beautiful pieces of food love for the home. I was lucky enough to work with her on this last year, contributing my recipe for Pappardelle with Prawn and Zucchini. Gem turned my recipe into a warm piece of art that has since brightened up many walls.
She has recently launched her second edition of posters, featuring super funky recipes by Australian hospitality icons such as Lisa Valmorbida (Pidapipo Gelateria) and Kay-Lene Tan (Tonka). Gem has a very unique eye and her beautiful artwork proves this. I bought all four posters last year, got them framed and hung them around my empty kitchen walls. If you have a few bare walls you are wanting to buy art for, take a look at Gem’s work. Not only is it stunning, but profits from this collection are donated to help put meals on the tables of people who need it most.
The shop is open and pre orders are available until Thursday, 25 February on the Food For Everyone website.
Thanks so much for subscribing! For those back in lockdown I hope you are doing okay, cooking lots and taking some time for yourselves. Will dispatch again soon with more rough recipes and photos from my camera roll. For now I will leave you with this perfect combination I walked by yesterday morning -a packet of 10 nuggets and a rose. X