Spaghetti Amatriciana, a classic of the Roman tradition
No garlic or onion in the sauce, even you shouldn’t put oil, because the bacon (cut into strips and not into cubes) must fry in its own fat, over low heat. The true, unique, “pure”, immaculate recipe for pasta (strictly spaghetti) in Amatriciana begins with these clarifications.
And there is no dispute that the Amatrice dish, the one that the shepherds used to cook between one transhumance and the next, is done just like this. Let’s see it together: the dish was born in Amatrice but was originally without tomato and took the name of “gricia” (or griscia, from the name of a village a few kilometers from Amatrice, a fraction of the municipality of Accumoli, Grisciano), this ingredient was added in following.
The Amatriciana, or ‘matriciana in Roman dialect, takes its name from Amatrice, a town in the province of Rieti, until 1927 in Abruzzo. It has been included in the list of traditional Lazio agri-food products. The recipe was invented by the ancient shepherds, who worked on the pastures and brought lard, dry pasta, bacon, black pepper and pecorino.
In the nineteenth century, the popularity of the Amatriciana in Rome grew considerably: already in those days, in fact, many owners of taverns and trattorias in the city were originally from Amatrice. So this condiment soon became a classic of Roman cuisine.
A stamp issued by the Italian Republic, worth € 0.60, was dedicated to the ingredients of spaghetti all’amatriciana on 29 August 2008.
Ingrediants:
Spaghetti 320 g
Peeled tomatoes 400 g
Amatrice bacon 150 g
Pecorino romano to grate 75 g
Salt up to taste
To prepare the spaghetti all’amatriciana, first boil the water for cooking the pasta to be salted. Then take the bacon, remove the rind and cut it into slices and then into strips of a few centimeters.
At this point, add the bacon in a non-stick pan and brown it over low heat for 7-8 minutes until the fat becomes transparent and the meat crisp.
Transfer the strips of bacon to a plate, pour the peeled tomatoes already frayed into the same pan, continue cooking the sauce for about 10 minutes. At this point the water in the pan will have come to a boil, then pour the spaghetti and cook them al dente.
Meanwhile, add the strips of bacon in a pan and mix to mix.
Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain and add them directly to the pan with the sauce. Skip the pasta to mix it well with the sauce, finally pour in plenty of grated Pecorino and serve.
