This is very simple but very good. Normally Pasta alla
Gricia is made with pancetta or guanciale, but they are hard to
get and kind of funky tasting. We use bacon as it's easier
to find and more familiar to us. The recipe has only 5
ingredients but the instructions are very specific. Follow
them closely. If you use too much water when you boil your
pasta, there will not be enough starch to make the sauce emulsify
and it will be greasy. Also, grate the cheese as fine as you
possibly can to make it melt easier without clumping.
8 oz
bacon,
thick cut is best
1 tbl
olive
oil
1 lb
rigatoni
2 tsp
freshly
ground black pepper
4 oz
Pecorino
Romano cheese, measured by weight, very finely grated
(plain Romano or even Parmesan will work just fine)
Cut the bacon into ½” pieces. Add the bacon to a cold Dutch
oven with the olive oil. Turn the heat to medium low and
cook the bacon for 10 to 12 minutes until the fat renders and the
bacon browns and just starts to get crisp. Don't overcook
it. When the bacon is cooked, remove it from the Dutch oven
and put it on a paper towel lined plate. Pour the rendered
fat from the bacon into a measuring cup. Reserve ⅓ cup of
the rendered fat.
While the bacon cooks, bring 2 quarts of unsalted water to a boil,
add the pasta, and cook for 10 minutes. The amount of water
and no salt is important, as you will be using some of the pasta
water later in this dish. Two quarts makes the starch
content of the water perfect and there is enough salt in the bacon
and the cheese for this dish. Put a colander in a bowl so
you can save the pasta water and drain the pasta. Pour 2
cups of the pasta water into a measuring cup. Add a little
olive oil to the pasta to keep it from sticking and let it sit in
the colander while you do the next steps.
Pour the reserved, measured rendered fat and the reserved,
measured pasta water into the Dutch oven, add the pepper, stir
well and bring this to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 6
minutes. Pour this sauce into a measuring cup and retain 1½
cups of it.
After you have measured 1½ cups of the sauce, pour it back into
the Dutch oven then add the pasta, bacon, and cheese. Turn
the heat to low and cook while constantly stirring until the
cheese melts and the sauce turns creamy. Serve.
