Easy to follow, delicious, authentic amatriciana recipe: make perfect pasta all’Amatriciana at home with this easy recipe from Rome.
Pasta all”amatriciana is one of the most traditional and loved pasta dishes in Rome.
Named after the small town of Amatrice, just outside of the capital, this pasta dish shares its key ingredients with other classic dishes of the Rome area such as carbonara, cacio e pepe and gricia however, it lifts them with the help of tomato-based sauce and a little bit of heat from a chilly.
This is the original amatriciana recipe and step by step intruction to make this classic Rome food at home.
How to make pasta all’amatriciana at home: perfect Amatriciana recipe
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Spaghetti Amatriciana ingredients for 4 people
- 125gr guanciale
- 500gr spaghetti (or bucatini)
- 1 chilly (peperoncino)
- 400gr pomodori pelati (peeled tomatoes/ canned tomatoes)
- 100 gr pecorino romano cheese
- White wine (dry)
- Olive oil, salt
- Gear: large pasta pot, non-stick pan
How to make Amatriciana: method
- In a non-stick pan, add your olive oil, heat up gently, then add guanciale and the chilly.
- Leave to cook until the fat is translucid and the guanciale crisp
- Pour in your white wine (to degrees the whole thing) then turn the heat slightly up and let evaporate
- As soon as cooked, use a perforated spoon (or a fork) to get the guanciale pieces off the pan and set aside. This is to prevent the guanciale from getting too dry and hard to the bite.
- Lower the heat slight to prevent spilling, then the peeled tomatoes to your pan and let cook. Use a fork or a wooden spoon to break up the bigger pieces into a pulp. Taste and adjust for salt: since the oil is flavoured by the guanciale, it is likely you won’t need much or at all. If in doubt, add less rather than more as the guanciale and pecorino will largely do the job
- In the meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a generous amount of salted boiling water.
- Just before draining your spaghetti, get rid of the chilly peppers, add guanciale back to the pan. Then throw in the drained spaghetti and mix well.
- Coat well adding a tiny bit of the pasta cooking sauce if needed
- Add pecorino, serve hot.
Most common mistakes when making Amatriciana
TAs you can see from the process above, amatriciana is easy to make so the mistakes usually made have to do with the ingredients chosen, rather than the cooking process.
The most common amatriciana mistakes are:
Using onion – there is no onion in this dish! Like there is no cream in carbonara, this is maybe the biggest food ‘sin’ when making Amatriciana. now that you know, it is also an easy one to avoid!
Using garlic – there is no garlic in amatriciana either.
While it is tempting to think that garlic is hardly out of place in an Italian dish, this would be misleading for amatriciana. Rome pasta dished do not make use of garlic and do not need it: try this recipe without changing anything and I am sure you will agree there is nothing lacking in terms of taste!
Using pancetta – Amatriciana uses guanciale, which is pork cut from the cheek of the pig and that has a delicate, distinctive taste.
Since it is often hard to find abroad, it is common to use pancetta instead.
While this may be inevitable should guanciale not be available, this will change the taste of Amatriciana and will give a different result from what you may have tasted in Rome
Using short pasta – some recipes tolerate different pasta shaped but amatriciana wants long pasta. Spaghetti or bucatini are ideal.
Cooking the pasta too long – this is true for all pasta dished but a rule worth repeating: you need your pasta al dente. As well as keeping a better taste and a more pleasant texture, pasta al dente is easier to digest than the goo you get if you overcook it.
Adding spices – the recipe for amatriciana calls for very few ingredients and you may feel tempted to add something extra to make it ‘better’.
However, the simplicity of the dish is its strength: do not be tempted to add spices or herbs like oregano or others: they do not belong in this dish and the dish definitely does not need them.
What you need to know about amatriciana: fun fact
Ask anyone what males Amatriciana unique and different from other pasta dishes in Rome and everyone will shout: the tomato sauce!
Indeed, amatriciana differs from carbonara, gricia and cacio e pepe because of the presence of the tomatoes however, tomatoes didn’t belong in the original recipe!
Food experts tell us that the addition of tomatoes only happened in 1790, when chef F. Leonardi first mentions it in the book “Modern Apicio’
Where to taste real amatriciana in Rome
If you are lucky enough to find yourself in Rome, make sure you taste Amatriciana in one of the best traditional Rome restaurants.
Some to try are:
Armando al Pantheon: Salita de’ Crescenzi, 31, 00186 Roma RM, Italy
Osteria Palmira: Via Abate Ugone 29, Rome
Santo Palato: Piazza Tarquinia 4a/b, Rome
Osteria Fernanda: Via Crescenzo Del Monte, 18 Rome