Rigatoni Amatriciana

You can't really go wrong with pasta, tomato, cheese, and pancetta. Fairly simple recipe, but a little elevated from your normal spaghetti and meatballs. The name "Amatriciana" is from a town in Italy called Amatrice. Here is a little history of the sauce I found online.

• 8 oz diced guanciale or pancetta
• 1 lb uncooked rigatoni pasta
• 1/2 cup (4 oz) dry white wine
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 (15 oz) can crushed tomatoes, pureed in a blender
• 2 oz pecorino Romano cheese, grated (about 1/2 cup)
• freshly ground black pepper

Place guanciale in a large skillet, and heat over medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and crispy, about 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Cook pasta in boiling water until just under al dente, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain water, reserving 1 cup pasta water.

Add wine to the guanciale in skillet; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until evaporated, 3-4 minutes. Add crushed red pepper and tomatoes; cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce starts to thicken, 3-4 minutes.

Transfer cooked pasta to skillet. Cook, stirring constantly, until pasta is warmed through, 3-4 minutes, adding up to 2/3 cup cooking water to reach desired consistency. Divide pasta among bowls; top with cheese and black pepper to taste.

NOTES: we used diced tomatoes because the cans of crushed tomatoes at WinCo were MASSIVE. We didn't want to use/waste that much.

Also, there was a lot of fat that cooked off the pancetta we used. We ended up pouring off about 1 Tbsp of oil/fat before adding the wine. We left about 1 Tbsp in the pan.

Serves 4

Total Time: 30 minutes

Recipe from People Magazine