Pasta alla Gricia

Guanciale and pecorino with no egg and no tomato, which is what makes it gricia.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains Pecorino Romano made with lamb rennet, pork.

Ingredients

• 400 g rigatoni or mezze maniche
• 200 g guanciale, in 1 cm batons
• 120 g pecorino romano, finely grated
• 2 teaspoons black peppercorns, coarsely cracked
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. FOUR ROMAN PASTAS, ONE INGREDIENT APART. Cacio e pepe is cheese and pepper. Gricia adds guanciale. Carbonara is gricia plus egg. Amatriciana is gricia plus tomato. This one has NO EGG AND NO TOMATO, and that absence is the whole definition.
2. Render the guanciale in a dry cold pan over a low heat for 8 to 10 minutes until the fat has run and the pieces are crisp at the edges and still soft inside. No oil: the guanciale provides all of it.
3. Lift the pieces out and keep most of the fat in the pan.
4. Toast the cracked pepper in that fat for 30 seconds.
5. Cook the pasta in water salted LESS than usual — the guanciale and the pecorino are both salty and the dish cannot be unsalted afterwards.
6. TAKE THE PAN OFF THE HEAT. Mix the pecorino with a little warm pasta water in a separate bowl to a smooth paste FIRST, then add it to the pan with the drained pasta and more water, tossing hard.
7. Cheese thrown dry into a hot pan seizes into strings every time. Made into a paste first and added off the heat, it emulsifies with the starch into a sauce that coats. Return the guanciale at the last second so it stays crisp.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes