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| Rigatoni, guancial, pecorino -- that's all you need |
Like cacio e pepe, it's a surprisingly simple Roman dish with minimalist ingredients -- just pasta, guancial (cured pork jowl with assertive piggy flavor), and pecorino (sheep) cheese. (Cacio is even more austere, dispensing with the guanciale). The pasta is the star, and needs to provide enough starch to bind the fat from the guanciale into a creamy sauce, so use a good one pressed through bronze dies. Likewise, use good quality pecorino, since it brings the sharp sheep cheese edge.
We knew we needed the starch released by the pasta, so we used the minimum amount of water we could to boil the pasta, a technique espoused for any starch-thickened sauce by Serious Eats. This pasta took about twice what commercial pasta requires, about 20 minutes, to get to al dente -- plenty of time to work on the guanciale and emulsion. Finish off heat or the cheese will separate or clump rather than form a creamy sauce.
You may not need to salt your pasta water if your guanciale is very salty; realize that any salt in the pasta water will be concentrated by boiling and a second reduction in the emulsion.
In Barcelona, we get 100 g packages of guanciale at Bon Breu; it's got lots of fat. Aldi has "Mancini" brand Rigatoni in 500 g bags that is die-cut and has enough starch to to create a good emulsion with the fat. Proportions below are based convenient quantities of these.
For 2 dinner portions:
166 g / 6 ounce Rigatoni, extruded through brass dies
100 g / 3.5 ounce Guanciale, sliced thin
60 g / 2 ounce Pecorino Cheese, grated very fine (half for sauce, half for serving)
Slice the Guanciale thin into strips or match sticks.
Add a bit of Olive Oil to a pan and sauté Guanciale to render fat; I find a skillet is easier to toss the emulsion than a high-sided pan used in these photos.
Cook the Rigatoni in a minimal amount of water so you can collect the starch that's thrown off; ours took 20 minutes.
As the pasta cooks, transfer some of the starchy water into the fat, oil and guanciale, and swirl to start creating the emulsion for the sauce.
Continue like this until the pasta is al dente; your emulsion should start looking like a credible but small sauce.
Add the pasta to the pan with the emulsion, I use a slotted spoon and know the extra water is just what I need.
Crank up the heat on the emulsion, you should hear some sizzling.
Swirl and flip the pan to agitate the emulsion, building the sauce.
You may want to add more of the now-highly-starchy water to the pan to build more sauce.
Continue until the sauce is a little thick, coating the pasta.
Off heat, grind some black pepper and drizzle in half the grated cheese, a bit at a time, swirl, and drizzle, repeat until you've used all half the cheese; it should merging with the sauce, and you don't need much cheese.
Serve immediately, garnished with the remaining cheese.
For 2 dinner portions:
166 g / 6 ounce Rigatoni, extruded through brass dies
100 g / 3.5 ounce Guanciale, sliced thin
60 g / 2 ounce Pecorino Cheese, grated very fine (half for sauce, half for serving)
Add a bit of Olive Oil to a pan and sauté Guanciale to render fat; I find a skillet is easier to toss the emulsion than a high-sided pan used in these photos.
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| Guanciale, a bit of oil, and starchy pasta water forming emulsion |
Cook the Rigatoni in a minimal amount of water so you can collect the starch that's thrown off; ours took 20 minutes.
As the pasta cooks, transfer some of the starchy water into the fat, oil and guanciale, and swirl to start creating the emulsion for the sauce.
Continue like this until the pasta is al dente; your emulsion should start looking like a credible but small sauce.
 |
| Minimal water (barely covering pasta) ensures plenty of starch |
Add the pasta to the pan with the emulsion, I use a slotted spoon and know the extra water is just what I need.
Crank up the heat on the emulsion, you should hear some sizzling.
Swirl and flip the pan to agitate the emulsion, building the sauce.
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| Flip it, flip it good! |
You may want to add more of the now-highly-starchy water to the pan to build more sauce.
Continue until the sauce is a little thick, coating the pasta.
Off heat, grind some black pepper and drizzle in half the grated cheese, a bit at a time, swirl, and drizzle, repeat until you've used all half the cheese; it should merging with the sauce, and you don't need much cheese.
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| Finish with pepper, cheese in multiple additions |
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| Swirl and toss well with each addition of cheese to form sauce |
Serve immediately, garnished with the remaining cheese.
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