Pasta Amatriciana
Another start stollen from our friends and NYT Cooking. It is a very simple dish. What was probably consider peasant food back in the day. But as I read the ingredients and started to imagine the things I might do make it work for me, my mouth watered. It was good!!
Ingredients:
2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
4-6 oz. guanciale or pancetta, chopped into ¼-inch cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs Basil, finely chopped (or one frozen cube)
2 (28oz) cans whole tomatoes, crushed with your hands in a bowl
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
½ tsp black pepper, plus more to taste
~ ½ tsp red-pepper flakes
½ tsp TJ Chili Lime spice
1 pound dried bucatini
¾ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus more for garnish
! loaf hard crust rustic bread
Directions:
- In a large (12-inch) skillet, heat olive oil over medium.
- Add mushrooms and sauté for 3 minutes, stirring
- Add garlic, basil and guanciale/pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 2 minutes.
- Add tomatoes, black pepper, red-pepper flakes,TJ Chili and Lime spice. Taste for salt substitute.
- Cook sauce, stirring occasionally and smashing tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon, until tomatoes have broken down and sauce is thickened, about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a large pot of salted water, cook pasta according to package directions until just shy of al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water and drain pasta in colander. After drained, return to past pot
- Place pasta pot on medium heat; combine pasta, 1/2 cup of pasta water and sauce until all the noodles are completely covered with sauce. If the sauce is too thick, add additional pasta water,
- Serve in individual bowls. Garnish with Parmesan, fresh ground pepper and fresh rustic bread.