Pasta all’amatriciana (-34 weeks)

Recipe 73: If you don’t know Amatrice is a city in my region, Lazio, and it’s very famous especially for this classic pasta recipe. To say the truth, in my family this has never been cooked too often, but here is the recipe i tried  yesterday and everyone loved it! Also this pasta is very easy and quick, but the taste is really special…i can’t translate the name, you just need to try it.

Ingredients for 4 people: 400 gr of pasta (the best is with bucatini, but in london are difficult to find so also with  spaghetti o linguine will be fine), 1 onion, 150 gr of pancetta, 300 gr of passata of tomatoes, 40 gr of pecorino romano (Waitrose), olive oil, salt, pepper and a bit of chili.

Put some olive oil in a pan and add the pancetta cut in little pieces. Then add the chopped onion and wait for them to cook a bit on a medium fire.

When the onion will become transparent, add the passata of tomatoes, with some salt , pepper and chili. In the meantime you can put some water to boil with some salt and when the water is ready, add the pasta and wait for around 8 minutes.

waiting for the passata and the rest to cook, grate some pecorino cheese. This cheese has the same consistency of the Parmesan, but with a stronger and saltier taste. On the pasta it’s just special!

Check the sauce. If it’s getting too dry, take it off from the fire until the pasta is ready. Then drain the pasta, but keep some water on a side just in case. Add the pasta to the sauce and mix it on the fire so the pasta can absorb all the tomatoes.

Serve it on a plate with some grated pecorino on top and black pepper if you like it.

Buon appetito!

PS. Mamy non sai che delizia…mi sono stupita di me stessa e della ricetta! Anche ad Anna e’ sembrata perfetta…certo con il guanciale ed i bucatini sarebbe stato il massimo, ma almeno questa volta ho trovato il pecorino romano e l’ho grattuggiato fresco con la nuova macchina che mi ha regalato una mia amica! Hai visto che macchinario professionale? Adesso si che non mi ferma piu’ nessuno 🙂