Bucatini all'amatriciana

One of the dialogues in my Italian textbook was about someone ordering spaghetti all'amatriciana in a restaurant, and this prompted our teacher, Carlo, to launch into a passionate description of how wonderful this Roman dish consisting of guanciale, pancetto, onion, tomato and hot pepper is. So I went to Domenica Marchetti's The Glorious Pasta of Italy for a recipe and found a good home version.

Her recipe calls for pancetta and Canadian/back bacon, but I thought I would be smarter and go to Vace, which I know carries guanciale. Sadly, they were out the day I was there, so I used 8 oz of pancetta, which gets sauteed 10 min until it renders its fat. Then you add 1/4 c olive oil, 1 c chopped red onion and 3 partially crushed garlic cloves for 5 min, then 2 c diced tomatoes with juice, sprinkled with salt and "a generous pinch" of red pepper flakes. Simmer for 10 more min. Meanwhile cook the bucatini to al dente, drain, reserving 1 c of pasta water, put the noodles in the skillet with the sauce and toss to combine over low heat. Transfer to heated bowl and sprinkle 1/2 c shredded pecorino romano over it and serve.

Bucatini are large-diameter spaghetti with a hole down the middle, which makes the cook more evenly and also helps pick up the sauce. This was a tasty, easy pasta dish. Next time I will try it with guanciale and either a bigger pinch of red pepper flakes, or, as Carlo described it, including a red pepper in the saute.