Gricia Recipe
A Roman pasta dish with guanciale, Pecorino cheese and black pepper.
Equipment
- 1 grater
Ingredients
- 1 lb rigatoni or similar pasta
- 1 tsp sea salt or Kosher salt, more or less as needed
- 8 oz guanciale (use pancetta if you can't source guanciale)
- ¼ tsp black pepper freshly ground, more or less to taste
- 3.5 oz Pecorino Romano DOP finely grated (about a cup)
Instructions
- Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Salt the water well when it is almost boiling then toss in the pasta and keep stirring as it cooks. Cook as directed until almost al dente.
- While the pasta is cooking, slice the guanciale into strips.
- Heat a large saucepan (which can accomodate a pound of pasta) over medium heat, then add the guanciale strips (there’s no need to add oil.)
- When the guanciale is golden brown and starting to crisp, turn off the heat and put the guanciale in a bowl.
- Add the ground black pepper to the fat in the pan.
- Take some of the pasta water and mix it into the Pecorino cheese to form the sauce.
- When the pasta is almost al dente, drain it and add it to the fat and black pepper in the pan, but RESERVE THE PASTA WATER. Next, add the creamy Pecorino to the pasta and toss to combine (off the heat.)
- Gently mix the sauce and pasta together. Add in the guanciale and mix again.
- Plate into five bowls immediately. Sprinkle with more cheese and serve.
Notes
- Given the difficulty of finding guanciale in the US, use pancetta if you cannot source it, but know that Italians will scoff at this, not knowing our pain!
- I always recommend buying a chunk of cheese and grating it yourself so you are sure of what you are buying. I've never heard of a recall on a hard piece of cheese, but many for bags of grated cheese.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 | Calories: 738kcal | Carbohydrates: 69g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 41g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 69mg | Sodium: 1097mg | Potassium: 221mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 83IU | Calcium: 231mg | Iron: 1mg
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