Normaly 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 is easier to get 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
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 but does not turn crisp. 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. 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. Let let the pasta 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.
