Canadian Travel News Recipe of the Day: David Rocco's Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Canadian Travel News Recipe of the Day: David Rocco’s Bucatini all’Amatriciana

January 15, 2021 ctn_admin

By Jim Byers

Just about everyone loves Italian food. And just about everyone who loves Italian food swoons over a perfect plate of pasta.

Back when I was travel editor at the Toronto Star, I sat down for a chat with celebrity chef David Rocco and came away with his cookbook, David Rocco’s Dolce Vita. One of my fave recipes is a dish that you’ll find on any decent restaurant menu in Rome, where it’s nearly a religion, and that’s Bucatini all’Amatriciana.

Bucatini looks like spaghetti but it’s thicker and has a teeny, tiny hole in it. Rocco says you need bucatini to make it authentic, but I think you can make a reasonable facsimile of it with spaghetti and nobody will know, assuming the Pope hasn’t dropped in for dinner.

Rocco says he prefers guanciale, Italian pork cheek, but that can be hard to find. If it’s not around or too expensive, he says you can use pancetta.

Here’s Rocco’s recipe.

Per 4 person
1 lb (500 g) bucatini pasta
3 tbsp (45 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
6 oz (175 g) guanciale or pancetta, cubed
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
Chili pepper flakes, QB (Quanto Basta, or as much as needed in English)
1 can (19 oz/540 mL) plum tomatoes, crushed
Salt, QB
1 cup (250 mL) grated pecorino cheese

The sauce will cook in about the same time it takes to cook the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, heat up the olive oil in a frying pan on high heat. Add your guanciale or pancetta and fry until it’s crisp, 7 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic, onion and chili pepper flakes and sauté until the onions soften. Turn down the heat to medium-high, add the tomatoes with a little bit of salt and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Once your pasta is at the al dente stage, reserve a cup of the cooking water, drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. If you’re using bucatini, you may not have to add any of the cooking water to the dish because the hollow middle of the noodle traps enough water and will release it right into the sauce. But if you’re using spaghetti, I recommend adding some of the liquid to help bind the sauce to the pasta. Let the whole thing cook for about a minute and then remove the pan from the heat. Add the grated pecorino cheese, mix it together and serve.

Note from pretend expert Jim “Jimbo the Chef” Byers: pecorino cheese is pretty salty, so if you’re on a salt-restricted diet I wouldn’t add extra. If not, go for it. Also note that virtually every decent Italian chef insists that pasta be cooked in salty water; preferably as salty as the ocean.