How to make spaghetti all'amatriciana, an original recipe typical of Amatrice, a small town in the province of Rieti in Lazio, necessary ingredients and detailed procedure for the preparation.
Amatriciana in short
Spaghetti cooked at Amatriciana, represent one of the most internationally known dishes of the Italian culinary tradition.
The recipe, born in its original formulation in Amatrice, a small Lazio town located on the border with Abruzzo, specifically provides for the use of spaghetti as a type of pasta, instead of bucatini, a variant of Roman origin, which some restaurateurs are used to offer in other tourist locations.
In past eras the recipe was considered a poor dish and was served in white, i.e. only spaghetti and bacon with the addition of pecorino.
Ingredients for 4 people
- 320 g spaghetti n ° 5
- 75 g Roman pecorino cheese to be grated
- 1 g fresh red pepper
- 10 g extra virgin olive oil
- 350 g peeled tomatoes (or passata)
- 100 g pillow
- 50 g white wine
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- 1 pinch black pepper
How to make spaghetti all'amatriciana
Cut the chilli into very thin strips, then take the bacon and, after removing the hard rind, cut it into thin slices before obtaining strips of about 0.5 cm thick.
Take a non-stick pan and pour a little oil into it.
In a saucepan, pour the bacon cut into strips and mix it using a spatula, to cook it evenly, until the fat part of the bacon becomes transparent.
At this point, blend the bacon with the white wine and let it evaporate, continuing cooking.
Add the chilli pepper and, as soon as the wine has evaporated, remove the bacon from the heat, drain it and remove it from the pan, before placing it in a small bowl and set it aside in a warm place.
Prepare the peeled tomatoes by cutting them in half, eliminating the internal seeds.
Pour the peeled tomatoes into the pan used to cook the bacon, letting it absorb the residual cooking sauce.
Cook the tomato without completely dissolving it.
Take a sufficiently large saucepan and add the water, then bring to a boil and salt.
As soon as the water boils again, pour the spaghetti, letting them cook just enough to make them al dente, then drain them.
Pour the spaghetti into the pan where the dissolved peeled tomatoes are located and add the bacon kept warm.
Mix the spaghetti well with the sauce and the bacon, in order to mix the ingredients perfectly.
Once this is done, grate the pecorino cheese on the spaghetti and grind black pepper in order to infuse even more flavor to this dish of pasta all'amatriciana.
Amatriciana variants
The recipe just exposed is the original one from Amatrice, a town where the festival of spaghetti all'amatriciana takes place every year in August.
A widespread variant of this local gastronomic specialty, involves the addition of onions to the bacon sauté which, in certain cases, is frequently replaced with bacon.
Amatriciana in history
In the period in which spaghetti amatriciana was invented, Amatrice was geographically located in Abruzzo, this dish was commonly consumed to feed local shepherds.
Its ancient name was "gricia" and the recipe did not include the addition of tomato.
After the discovery of America, tomato arrived in Europe, which is why the Amatriciana recipe as we know it today was born, that is, including this vegetable.
Every year the famous spaghetti festival amatriciana is held in Amatrice, the dates of the event are set for the last weekend of August.
