If you’ve had amatriciana and wondered what all the fuss was about, then you haven’t had real Amatriciana.

If you’ve had Amatriciana and you think of it as a tomato sauce, again, you haven’t had real Amatriciana. Real Amatriciana’s genius is that it is not a tomato sauce, but rather a fat sauce.

Are you queasy at the thought?

But now, consider a pleasing plate of spaghetti dressed simply with olive oil and garlic and pepper flakes. Or a bowl of pasta with butter and a shaving of aged Pecorino Romano. Or a plate of carbonara that makes you close your eyes to keep from swooning. Amatriciana is the same, only the fat is ideally guanciale, and secondarily pancetta, and a distant third, bacon. Whatever meat is used needs to be rendered slowly until the meat is crisp and the fat can become a base to add crushed tomatoes and a spicy red pepper.

That. That matters far more than if you use the esoteric bucatini noodle or just a plain spaghetti.

So Amatriciana is not a tomato sauce. In fact, conventional wisdom suggests that the original version had no tomato at all! It’s a slippery and decadent kind of pasta. And, like many great Italian sauces, it comes together while the pasta cooks, which means it’s a dinner in a hurry that eats like a celebration.

Bucatini alla Amatriciana

Ingredients

1 box spaghetti or bucatini, 500 grams or 1 pound
olive oil
fresh red chili pepper (for ultimate authenticity), or a pinch of red pepper flakes
guanciale (preferred) or pancetta or if you have no other option, bacon, 200 grams or 7 ounces, cut it into slices about 1 centimeter thick, and then into strips about 1/2 centimeter wide.
white wine, about 1/3 of a cup or 80 grams
one can of high-quality peeled tomatoes (about 800 grams or 28 ounces)
Pecorino Romano cheese, a cup of 100 grams, for grating
salt

Process:

Heat water with plenty of salt (water should taste like sea water). As the water heats, start the sauce. Cook the pasta according to package directions, stirring occasionally as you continue making the sauce. iMPORTANT: Before you drain the pasta, make sure you get about a cup of the cooking water.
Heat a splash of olive oil over low heat (you want to render the fat before you overly brown the guanciale… so slow) in a pan that can hold the cooked pasta, and toss in the chili and the guanciale. Cook for seven minutes, until the fat is rendered and the pork is crisp (this is the beauty of guanciale over other pork products, it gets, and stays, delightfully crisp)
Pour in the wine and turn up the heat to medium high to let the wine mostly evaporate.
Remove the guanciale to a plate.
One at a time, take a tomato from the can and crush it with your hands (many people say this is the ultimate trick to real amatriciana).
Cook for about ten minutes, remove the chili pepper and add the guanciale back to the tomatoes. Stir. continue cooking the sauce for about 10 minutes.
Add the drained pasta to the sauce and sauté together for a few minutes. Add some of the reserved water if the pasta seems too dry.
Add about half the cheese and toss. Taste, and add more if desired (also correct seasonings at this point—does it need more salt or a sprinkle of red pepper flakes to up the heat?).
Serve along with the rest of the grated cheese for anyone who wants an extra sprinkle.

Buon appetito!