Bucatini All'Amatriciana with Fresh Tomatoes

Bucatini All'Amatriciana is a classic Roman pasta dish, and certainly a favorite in our house. This dish was taught to me from a chef from Rome, the best ex-boss I'll ever have.

There are a number of different ways to make Bucatini All'Amatriciana, but this is my favorite iteration, which also happens to be the simplest and quickest version. All you need is five ingredients and about 30 minutes of your time.

Ingredient Notes

• Bucatini: This is a long, thin tubular pasta also known as perciatelli. Feel free to substitute spaghetti, linguine or fettucine. I would personally sub out with rigatoni even though it's an entirely different shape.
• Guanciale: This is cured pork cheek or jowl. It's considerably fattier than pancetta and also spiced differently. Substituting this for another ingredient would significantly change the dish in my opinion, however, if you can only find a chunk or pancetta or slab bacon, those will be tasty too. I would probably add about 2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to the sauce if I were to use pancetta to compensate for the difference in fat.
• Tomatoes: The type of fresh tomato you use is less important than the quality. Go for the ripest, sweetest tomatoes you can find. Remember they will ripen further on your counter if you don't use them immediately. I usually use compari tomatoes, because they're very sweet and I enjoy the flesh to juice ratio. My second choice would probably be canned, San Marzano tomatoes in the same volume with only a little of the juice from the can. If you can find really great plum tomatoes or vine-ripe tomatoes, I would give those a try. For a smoother sauce, you can blanch, shock and peel the tomatoes first. Grape or cherry tomatoes would certainly also be sweet and tasty, albeit further from tradition.
• Pecorino romano: Pecorino cheese is traditional in this dish and provides a tangy, salty bite. You can also use parmigiano reggiano or domestic parmesan, which is more on the nutty side.

Step by Step Process

Bucatini All'Amatriciana comes together so quickly and easily. Heat up a pot of water to cook the pasta in, and start rendering the guanciale (1).

Once the pork starts to crisp up, add red pepper flakes (2), followed by the tomatoes (3-4). Then start cooking the pasta. The sauce and pasta will be ready around the same time.

Finish off the sauce with a little pecorino cheese and serve with a grating of cheese over the top. Mangia!

Recipe Tips and FAQs

1. If you can't find great quality fresh tomatoes, use canned San Marzano tomatoes. In this case, I'd cook the sauce for about 20-30 minutes or until the flavor develops properly. Canned tomatoes definitely need longer cooking time than fresh tomatoes.
2. If you substitute pancetta for guanciale, add a 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, to taste, in the sauce to make up for the missing richness.
3. Try adding sliced onions. Red onions are another common ingredient in this dish. I would cut the onions into paper thin slices and add them to the pan after the guanciale renders. Try sautéing them until translucent, 5 minutes or so, and then add the tomatoes.

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More Tasty Pasta Recipes

• Shrimp Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes
• Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta
• Spaghetti Bolognese
• Ramp Pasta
• Pasta with Mushrooms and Prosciutto
• Pasta with Peas and Pancetta
• Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

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