Proietti’s Amatriciana

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: June 2024 | Photograph By: Susan Renfro

Massimiliano Proietti

“Amatriciana is my favorite dish because it represents my passion for cooking, the love of my heritage, and the happy tears that remind me of my mom cooking this dish for our family in Rome,” says Massimiliano Proietti, who oversees recipe innovation at Ristorante Paoletti. “These recipes were known as dishes for farmers and their families and include Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe, Gricia, and my favorite, Amatriciana, and have been rediscovered in restaurants around the world.”

The sauce is simplicity personified: a savory ooze of guanciale (cured pork cheek), San Marzano DOP tomatoes and grated pecorino cheese, with a hint of hot pepper to deliver a subtle afterthought of heat, piled upon the thick, hollow, and slithery noodle known as bucatini.

One of the most satisfying dishes on the Roman table, the dish is a guilty pleasure. The end so delectable, so luscious that it just may compel you, as it has others, to invoke the gods,

Chef Massimiliano Proietti’s Amatriciana

Note: (If you can’t find guanciale, pancetta is a good sub as is slab cut bacon, but in that case you might want to add a sprinkling of black pepper) Bucatini is a thicker pasta with a hollow center that captures the thick sauce but spaghetti delivers equally tasty results.

Ingredients

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

10 ounces guanciale (see headnotes)

1 cup white wine

28 oz can whole San Marzano DOP tomatoes

½ cup grated Pecorino cheese

1-pound dried bucatini

Directions

Step 1

In a large (12-inch) skillet, heat olive oil over medium. Add guanciale and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the white wine and cook, stirring, until mostly evaporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove 1/3 of the guanciale and transfer to a plate. To the skillet, add San Marzano DOP tomatoes, and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally for 1 hour, until thickened. When ready, puree the sauce with an immersion blender.

Step 2

Meanwhile, in a large pot of salted water, cook pasta according to package directions until just shy of al dente. Reserve 2 cups of the pasta cooking water and drain.

Step 3

Return the guanciale to a separate saucepan and reheat over a small amount of olive oil and a splash of white wine and return. Add the tomato sauce and 2 cups of pasta cooking water to the pot along with the strained pasta and stir vigorously over medium-high heat until pasta is evenly coated in the sauce, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, stir in the cheese and season to taste with salt.

Step 4

Divide pasta among bowls and garnish with more cheese and if desired, black pepper or red chili flakes.

“What we say in Roman slang when you have a bad day, ‘Magna che te passa.’ When you eat you will forget.” – Massimiliano Proietti