Pasta Dish From the Rome Area: Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Amatrice is a town in the Italian region of Lazio, the region of Rome, and the town is about 65 to 70 miles northeast of Rome. (Amatrice is pronounced like: ahm-ah-tree-chay) This rustic dish passed into the cuisine of Rome itself, where "seemingly" some Romans added onion and/or dry white wine to the original Amatrice ingredients (note: I don't use onion).

 

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. This dish is not supposed to be smoky tasting at all. I like to often mix in some fresh tomatoes with canned tomatoes in a lot of dishes, so I've done that here, too. Bucatini is a spaghetti-type pasta with a hole in the middle. It is sort of like a drinking straw. If you can't find bucatini, you can certainly use spaghetti. The tough part to this recipe is initially cooking the bucatini in the water to a point that it is not quite done, because then it is added to the sauce to briefly cook some more. The best thing to do is to read the cooking instructions on the packaging of the bucatini you use to see the cooking time, but then to stop cooking the bucatini about two minutes before the recommended cooking time and then add the pasta to the recipe. By cooking the pasta in the sauce briefly, it has a chance to take on the flavors of the dish. 

Oh ... THIS IS SO GOOD!

Ingredients:

1 pound bucatini (or spaghetti)

2/3 cup chopped guanciale (or pancetta)

1 small red chili pepper, chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes) 

1/4 cup dry white wine

6 or 8 grape tomatoes or 1 fresh roma tomato

1 can (14 to 15 ounces) of peeled whole tomatoes, crushed/squished by hand, with juice

1 small can (8 ounces) tomato sauce (I use the no added salt type)

2/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano

good pinch only of salt

pasta water, if needed

Put 5 or 6 quarts of water with 1 heaping tablespoon of salt in a large pot; stir to mix in the salt. Begin gradually heating the water by putting the heat on medium. You don't want the water to boil too quickly, as you need to get the sauce started first. In a skillet over medium heat, add the chopped guanciale and immediately reduce the heat to low. Slowly render the fat from the guanciale, then add the chili pepper (or chili flakes) and the fresh tomato pieces, saute 2 minutes. (You can now turn the heat to high for the pot of water.) Back to the skillet, turn the heat to medium for the guanciale mixture, add the white wine and then the canned tomatoes and tomato sauce; stir to mix. Bring to a steady simmer, and adjust the heat to maintain that steady simmer for about 6 minutes. Stir in the grated pecorino romano and the pinch of salt. Meanwhile, when the pasta water boils, add the bucatini and cook until the bucatini is not quite tender; I'll say 6 to 7 minutes (this is the tricky part, as generally dried bucatini takes about 8 to 10 minutes to cook, and it will cook a bit longer in the sauce, so you don't want it completely cooked before you add it to the sauce. Check the cooking instructions on the bucatini packaging for cooking time and adjust your cooking time accordingly, if need be.) Remove the bucatini from the water (save some of the pasta cooking water) and add the bucatini to the sauce, mixing it into the sauce; if the sauce is too thick, add some of the pasta water a little at a time until the preferred consistency is reached. When the bucatini is tender, you've got it! You can serve with a little sprinkling of some more pecorino romano, if you'd like. And don't forget the wine!

 

Bucatini all'Amatriciana with a glass of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo ...

WORD HISTORY:

Tenacity (tenacious)-"Tenacity" is related to quite a number of words, including to "tension," "tenant" and "tenure," Latin-derived words borrowed by English from French (with both "tenant" and "tenure" specifically from Anglo-French), to "tendon," a word of Greek origin borrowed by Latin and then borrowed by English from Latin. "Tenacity" goes back to Indo European "ten," which had the notion "to stretch, to extend out, to draw out." This gave Latin "tenere," meaning, "to grasp, to hold," which produced the adjective "tenax," meaning, relating to "holding fast or firmly, clinging persistently, steadfast," which gave Latin the noun "tenacitas," meaning "the act of holding fast, firmly, persistently, steadfastly." This passed to Latin-based Old French as "ténacité" and English borrowed the word in the early part of the 1400s, initially as "tenacite." The adjective "tenacious" was formed in English in the early 1600s from Latin "tenax" (see above), and with the "ious" suffix (meaning, "having the characteristics of, full of, with an abundance of") from French "ous" and "eux," both from Latin "osus," with the same basic meanings as listed for the English form. 

Sicilian Bucatini With Sardines: Pasta Chi Sardi

This is one of the dishes associated with the city of Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily, although Sicilians beyond Palermo make the dish. Legend has it that an Arab cook invented the dish in the 800s (yes, 800s) on Sicily by using fish and wild fennel, both plentiful on Sicily.  

 

On Sicily, they have a type of wild fennel common to the island they use, but you'll likely have to settle for the fennel from your produce store or from your garden. Bucatini is a type of Italian pasta that is much like thick spaghetti, but with a hole running through the middle. There is an abundance of sardines in the waters off of Palermo, which is a port city in northwestern Sicily; thus, Sicilians use fresh sardines for this dish, but you can use canned sardines, and I use boneless and skinless sardines. I'm not a fan of having to pick bones out of fish, and I've found that many people who say they do not like fish, it is because of bones in the fish, not the taste of fish.

 

Ingredients (5 to 6 servings):

 

8 ounces bucatini

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup chopped fennel (including fronds), divided use

good pinch of saffron threads + 1 tablespoon tomato paste + 3 tablespoons water

3 anchovy fillets

two cans sardines (4.4 to 5 ounces each) 

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 

1/3 cup coarse breadcrumbs (panko is fine) toasted in 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

salt for the pasta water

If you use whole cleaned sardines, they will need to be butterflied and have the bones removed. Canned sardines should begin to sound better now. Haha 

Add the water, tomato paste and saffron to a cup or small bowl, stir and set it aside. In a skillet, heat the extra virgin olive oil over medium heat, then add the onion and saute until it begins to soften. Add the raisins, pine nuts, 1/4 cup chopped fennel, anchovy fillets; saute for 3 to 4 minutes, then add one can of sardines and cook for another 3 minutes, breaking up the sardines and anchovies (which will begin to dissolve) during that time. Now add the saffron, tomato paste and water mixture; stir well. In the meantime, cook the bucatini in boiling water, seasoned with the other 1/4 cup chopped fennel and the fronds of fennel and salt. Cook until nearly al dente. Remove the bucatini from the water with a slotted spoon or a sieve and add it to the skillet, then add 1 cup of the seasoned cooking water to the skillet and increase the heat to medium high. Add the other can of sardines (but don't deliberately break up these fish) and the ground black pepper. Stir frequently and cook until much of the liquid is gone (I used low heat). Use a small skillet to heat 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the bread crumbs and toast them until golden, stirring lightly, but constantly, to prevent the breadcrumbs from getting too dark or burning. Serve the bucatini and sardines with some of the breadcrumbs sprinkled over the top. 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Vigor (British spelling: vigour)- This word is related to "vegetable," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French, and it is distantly related to "watch" and "wake," words from the Germanic roots of English. "Vigor" goes back to Indo European "weg/wek," which had the notion, "to be active, to be lively. This gave Latin "vigere" meaning, "to be lively, to thrive." This produced the Latin noun "vigor" (accusative: vigorem), with the meaning, "liveliness, activity;" thus also, "strength." This passed to Latin-based Old French as "vigor" (also "vigur?"), and this then became "vigour," including in the Anglo-French dialect spoken in England, all with the meaning of "strength to exert oneself in activity." English borrowed the word in the early 1300s as "vigour," and later the American spelling returned to the Latin spelling "vigor."