Pasta alla Gricia
Pasta Alla Gricia
Everywhere we look someone is making Cacio e pepe or carbonara but have you ever tried Pasta Alla Gricia? This Roman classic is perfectly balanced with pecorino Romano and guanciale. Somehow it turns into this velvety creamy sauce without any egg or cream! You will be insanely impressed with this dish if you do it right. It’s seriously a treat. Tag us in your recipes if you make this!!
Ingredients
- 1 lb (1 box) dry pasta - we like spaghetti or rigatoni for this
- 1/4 lb guanciale
- 2-3 cups grated pecorino Romano
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- pepper
Instructions
- dice your guancaile into strips and remove the outer layer if it’s covered in seasonings and extra salt
- start by cooking down your guanciale low and slow, you want to render the fat...there’s not a ton of substitutions for this luscious meat but I suppose you can use pancetta you may need to add some oil/butter
- once your meat is cooked down remove from pan and turn up heat...now add about 1/2 cup white wine and let it cook off. The wine will help balance the richness of the fat and add some acidity
- prepare your pasta: you want a nice sturdy spaghetti or bucatini don’t forget to reserve some pasta water, also, you do not need to salt the water the other ingredients are salty enough
- in the meantime, freshly grate your block of pecorino Romano (not Parmesan) this is a saltier cheese...you want a lot of this maybe 2-3 cups grated
- add guanciale (reserve a handful to put on the top of your finished dish) back to pan and alternate adding a little pasta water, parm, pepper, until you form a nice sauce...do this on little to no heat! The pasta water should be hot though
- our sauce took about 3-4 round of adding cheese so be patient
