Pasta alla Gricia: Roman Pasta Specialty

This is a simple dish and one of the common pasta dishes of Roman cuisine. Guanciale (like gwahn-key-ahlay by some, like gwahn-chee-ahlay by others, I've heard both) is cured fatty pork jowl, unsmoked, it is not always easy to find, although if you live near an Italian grocery store or like ordering online, give it a try; otherwise, you can use pancetta (unsmoked, cured Italian pork belly/bacon), which is much easier to find. I don't recommend using regular bacon, because it is smoked, and that will give the dish a very different taste.

 

Ingredients:

 

3/4 pound rigatoni 

2/3 cup chopped guanciale

(optional) 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano 

1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper (to be used in 2 stages)

pasta cooking water, 2 cups, plus a little more, if needed

 

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the chopped guanciale and immediately turn heat to low (before adding the guanciale or pancetta, you can add like a teaspoon of olive oil, if you feel the need, but I doubt you'll actually need it). Let the fat render from the guanciale by sauteing over low heat for about 12 to 15 minutes, turning or stirring around the guanciale periodically. Remove the guanciale to a plate. Still over low heat, add 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, saute for about 45 to 60 seconds. Heat salted water in a separate pan over high heat and when boiling, add rigatoni. After about 5 minutes, remove pan from heat and take 2 cups of pasta cooking water and add it to the skillet. Turn heat to high to bring water and peppered guanciale fat to a boil. Transfer the pasta to the boiling water in the skillet, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium and cook rigatoni for a total of 6 minutes in the skillet, then return the guanciale to the skillet and mix it in with the pasta and sauce. Add small amounts of remaining pasta water to the skillet, but only if the rigatoni and sauce are too thick. Once the rigatoni is al dente, add half of the Pecorino Romano and mix it in, then add the remaining cheese and combine, along with other 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper.     

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Magnum-This word is related to quite a number of words, for example: to "master," a word from Germanic that had been borrowed from Latin, to "magistrate," "magnify" and "mayor," Latin words borrowed by English from Latin-based French (although "magistrate" came with heavy reinforcement from Latin itself), to the prefix "mega-," which is from Greek, and to "maestro," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from Italian.  "Magnum" goes back to Indo European "meg," which meant "great;" thus also, "big, large." This gave its Old Italic offspring "magnos," with the same meaning, and this gave Latin "magnus," with the same main meanings, but with extended meanings like "strong, mighty, grand." "Magnum" was the neuter form of "magnus," and English borrowed the word as "magnum" in the 1780s, meaning "larger than normal bottle of wine." American gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson had the registered trademark for a powerful handgun in the mid 1930s they called the "Magnum." "Magnum opus" means "great work" and is directly from Latin (seems in the 1790s?).