Ingredients: (4 persons)
-400gr of spaghetti
-100 gr of bacon or pancetta (more fat)
-1 fresh chilli (dried chilli is also good)
-350 grams of fresh tomato (or canned)
-50 ml of white wine
-Pepper and salt
-Pecorino romano (cured sheep’s milk cheese is also good)
-Olive oil
I am writing this recipe in honor of the town of Amatrice after the disastrous earthquake that happened a few weeks ago. It is a typical dish of the shepherds of the area who cooked with the ingredients they had at hand. At the beginning this recipe was without tomato as this ingredient arrived a little later in Europe. But I have chosen the modern version with tomato “molto piú buona”. To say also that I have chosen spaghetti as pasta but you can also make it with rigatoni, etc.. However in the town of Amatrice I know that they use spaghetti.
First of all put to boil casserole with abundant water and a little salt and bring it to boil. I do not throw too much salt in the water since the recipe to take bacon already will be salty.
Waiting for the water to boil we make the sauce which is quite fast.
receta espaguetis a la amatriciana
We prepare the ingredients by first chopping the bacon or the pancetta (if you want more fat the pancetta is better), we also chop into small pieces the fresh chili pepper. Evidently the chili pepper and its quantity will depend on if we like it more or less spicy. If we do not have the fresh one, the dry one is equally useful. And if we do not have then pepper and point ….
Grate the pecorino cheese. I grate it with the coarse part of the grater because I like to feel the cheese in the mouth.
Once we have all the ingredients ready, we take a frying pan and add a drizzle of olive oil. If we work with the bacon we can do it without oil since when frying it will release enough fat. Heat the oil and add the fresh chili pepper in small pieces so that it will taste good. Then add the bacon and sauté it. It is not necessary that it is crispy, we can leave it a little tender. Add the glass of white wine and let it evaporate for a few minutes.
Once the white wine has evaporated a little, add the crushed fresh tomato. Turn up the heat a little. Do not forget to add salt and pepper to taste. Let it all reduce for a few minutes. At this point the sauce is ready. Drain the pasta “al dente” since we are going to add it to the sauce and it will finish cooking. Serve on plates and sprinkle with grated pecorino cheese to taste. And ready to “manggiare questa deliziosa riceta italiana!”
A strong and sincere hug to all of Amatrice !
