Pasta Alla Gricia Recipes

Steps:

• Add the bacon to a large skillet. Place over medium heat and cook until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crispy, about 20 minutes. Drain all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat from the pan. Stir in the pepper and set aside.
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Season it generously with salt. Cook the pasta for 2 minutes less than the package directions, about 8 minutes. Add 1 cup of the pasta water to the pan with the bacon, return the pan to medium-high heat and cook, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the skillet with a wooden spoon, until slightly reduced, about 1 minute.
• Using tongs, remove the pasta from the water and add it directly to the pan with the sauce. Sprinkle the pasta with the cheese and begin to toss the pasta with the sauce. Continue to stir over low heat and toss until the sauce thickens and coats the pasta and the pasta is cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. (Through this process, you may need to add more pasta water to help cook the pasta and maintain a sauce. This could take up to a cup more pasta water.) Serve topped with more cheese if desired.

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add bucatini or rigatoni.
• Meanwhile, place a 12-inch skillet over medium heat, add olive oil, onion and guanciale. Cook until onion is translucent and barely starting to brown. Remove from heat.
• When pasta is al dente, drain it, reserving 1 cup pasta water. Transfer pasta to skillet, place over medium-low heat and toss with guanciale and onion. Season with salt and generously with pepper; fold in about half the pasta water and the cheese. Toss, adding more pasta water as needed to help cheese coat pasta. Check seasoning and serve, with more cheese on the side.

Steps:

• Cook coarse-chopped slab bacon in olive oil until done; toss with cooked linguine. Toss with bacon, fat, lots of grated pecorino and lots of black pepper; stir.

Steps:

• In a large nonstick pan, heat the olive oil, and then add the guanciale and garlic. Cook for about 10 minutes, making sure that the meat does not get too crunchy and the garlic does not burn. Cook's Note: If you see that the garlic is browning too fast, remove it from the pan, finish the pork, and then add it again to the sauce.
• When the guanciale and the garlic are nice and golden brown, add the sage.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta to the water, and cook it about 2 minutes less than indicated on the box. Strain the pasta and add it to the saucepan over a medium-high heat, toss it around for a few seconds, then add the grated Pecorino, toss for one minute.
• Garnish with some grated Pecorino, a drop of extra-virgin olive oil, and some ground black pepper. Serve with a bottle of robust red wine.

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti in the boiling water, stirring occasionally, until tender yet firm to the bite, about 12 minutes. Drain, saving about 1 cup of cooking water.
• Meanwhile, place guanciale in a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until crisp, about 3 minutes. Add pasta water, cooked spaghetti, and grated Pecorino Romano cheese. Mix well.
• Distribute pasta amongst 4 bowls and serve with freshly ground black pepper and extra Pecorino Romano cheese.

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Combine the olive oil and meat in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is nicely browned, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat.
• Cook the pasta until it is tender but not mushy. Before draining the pasta, remove about a cup of the cooking water and reserve it.
• Toss the drained pasta with the meat and its juices; stir in the cheese. If the mixture is dry, add a little of the pasta-cooking water (or a little olive oil). Toss in lots of black pepper and serve.
• Spaghetti Carbonara: While the pasta is cooking, warm a large bowl and beat 3 eggs in it. Stir in about 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and the pancetta and its juices. When the pasta is done, drain it and toss with the egg mixture. If the mixture is dry (unlikely), add a little reserved cooking water. Add plenty of black pepper and some more Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste and serve.
• Pasta all'Amatriciana: In step 1, remove the pancetta with a slotted spoon and, in the juices left behind, sauté a medium onion, sliced, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until well softened, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool a bit. Stir in 2 cups chopped tomato (canned is fine; drain it first) and turn the heat back to medium. Cook the sauce, stirring occasionally, while you cook the pasta. When the pasta is done, drain it and toss it with the tomato sauce, the reserved pancetta, and at least 1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
• The eggs will cook fully from the heat of the pasta. If this makes you at all nervous, however, do the final tossing of eggs, cheese, and pasta in the cooking pot, over the lowest heat possible.
• Cookbooks and articles about Italian cooking insist that the "genuine" meat for these recipes is pancetta-salted, cured, and rolled pork belly. Pancetta is available in almost any decent Italian deli and in many specialty stores, but for those of us who could not obtain pancetta, bacon-which is also pork belly, but cured and smoked-is an adequate substitute. (In fact, the first choice for these dishes is guanciale, salted and cured pig jowl; but that's hard to find.)
• Similarly, pecorino Romano is "essential" to pasta alla gricia, Parmigiano-Reggiano is the most commonly used cheese in carbonara, and the Amatriciana-style sauce is at home with either. But, again, you can choose whatever you like-no one is looking.