Niña
​nin-ya
  • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • Tourettes
    • Geeeetar Playin'
  • My Life
  • Travel Bug-a-boo
  • Fave Recipes
    • Photo Gallery
  • Picture the Taste
  • Bright Ideas
  • Reviews
  • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • Tourettes
    • Geeeetar Playin'
  • My Life
  • Travel Bug-a-boo
  • Fave Recipes
    • Photo Gallery
  • Picture the Taste
  • Bright Ideas
  • Reviews
Niña
​nin-ya

NIÑA ​ANINIAS

SHOP. COOK. EAT.
REPEAT.

Spaghetti All'Amatriciana

3/28/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
It's solely Julia Roberts' movie Eat. Pray. Love. and her fantabulous way of eating that got me into researching for this recipe. I'm not quite impressed by the story and how the flow of it went about. It started slow, then great, then slow, then just became a little bit cheesy.

You can already guess which part ranked "great" for me. The dining part definitely made a huge impression... to my stomach!

I wasn't sure how it would taste. Movies are all about acting... so it was a risk. I hate wasting food and if the end result isn't as I expected, I'd be very disappointed! But, after cooking this... I understood... Julia wasn't acting ... it was rich, creamy and just a really beautiful dish.

I think everyone should cook it, eat it and find out for themselves how great of a dish this is. It's a typical Italian dish. It wasn't made to be complicated... it was made for you to taste each and every component of the dish and how each complements the others.

Tip 1: Use as many or as less cherry tomatoes. My husband loves how it bursts in his mouth, to think that he doesn't like tomatoes.
Tip 2: Add the basil towards the end of your cooking. Basil is one of the herbs that has lighter oil, which means if you add it earlier in the cooking, its flavour would be lost among the crowd.
Tip 3: I haven't used chicken or beef in this dish but I bet it would taste good too.
Tip 4: You can use guanciale or lardon instead of pancetta. It's just easier for me to find pancetta in the supermarket so that's why I prefer to use it.
Tip 5: Of course, if you want to use a different pasta, say a Bucatini, a spaghetti-like thicker version with holes in the middle, it's up to you. Pasta and sauces are partners. Thick sauces call for thick pastas, thin sauces call for delicate pastas.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
227 grams or 8 oz pancetta
2 large onions, diced 1/2 inch
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4-cans (227 grams or 8 oz) tomato sauce
15 cherry tomatoes optional
500 grams spaghetti
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano plus extra for garnish
Fresh basil leaves, sliced

Directions:
Cook spaghetti in a large pot of well salted water. Cook it 2 minutes less than what the package states. Drain and set aside making sure you reserve 2 cups of pasta water for later use.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the pancetta and saute over low heat until it is brown and crispy, about 15-20 minutes. Remove pancetta and set aside.

Bring the pan to medium heat, add garlic, onions and pepper flakes. Season with salt. Cook the onions until it's transluscent, starting to turn golden and the aroma starts whafting through the air, about 10-15 minutes.

Add the sauce 2/3 of pancetta and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the sauce for about 25 mins. Adjust the salt, as needed. Reserve 3 ladlefuls of the sauce for later use. In the last 5 minutes of simmering, add cherry tomatoes. If the sauce becomes too thick, add some pasta water until your desired consistency.

Add the drained pasta to the remaining pot of sauce. Add cheese, drizzle with olive oil and toss well to ensure the flavours are married well. If the coating is too thick, add more sauce. It should be a balanced coating.

Serve on individual bowls, sprinkle additional parmegiano cheese, basil and divide the remaining pancetta on each bowl. Make sure each bowl has a cherry tomato or two. Cherry tomatoes will still be whole but once it's in your mouth, it bursts into a sweet flavour that works so well with the sauce and pasta.

Enjoy your Spaghetti All'Amatriciana, pasta in a creamy tomato and cheese sauce with a fresh flavour of basil and a good side of spcicy kick.

Related Post: Eat. Pray. Love. - Eat! Eat! Eat!

-AcousticChef, cookin' one tune at a time!
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Fave Recipes

    I'm No Chef but I love food like it's no one's business.

    I didn't know anything about cooking... frying an egg used to be a nightmare.. until I was forced to learn more... I had my first born... that's when my gastronomic journey started...

    Join me in my food quest.
    Laugh at my embarrassing moments.
    Share my triumphs.

    And if you're brave enough ... cook with me (ooooh scary!), virtually that is, and have the most enjoyable time!

    Welcome aboard
    fellow foodies!

    Print Friendly and PDF

    Categories

    All
    Ac Spin
    Appetizer
    Baking
    Bbq
    Beef
    Bread
    Breakfast
    Butter
    Chicken
    Dairy
    Dessert
    Drink
    Entree
    Fave
    Fondant
    Gobbledtooquicklyphotosnexttime
    Halloween
    Icing And Frosting
    Lamb
    Main Course
    Marinade
    Nibbles
    Occasions
    Pasta
    Pastry
    Pork
    Poultry
    Rice
    Salad
    Sandwich
    Sauce
    Seafood
    Side Dish
    Slow Cooker
    Smoothie
    Snacks
    Soup
    Spaghetti Challenge
    Stew
    Stock
    Tapas
    Vegetables
    Workinprogress
    Zespiri Kiwifruit

    Archives

    February 2016
    January 2016
    January 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.