Pasta with Amatriciana Sauce

Pasta with Amatriciana Sauce is a simple, satisfying Italian dish that goes together in a snap!

Start to finish, this is one of those quick sauces, perfect for busy weeknights…no need to let it simmer hours on the stove. Just get out a big sauce pan, cook up some pancetta and onions, toss in the tomatoes. I added some white wine, because, well, it was sitting there in the fridge so why not?  It’s not traditional in this sauce, but that’s okay.  Leave it out if you want.  Then add a little cheese and its done.   About the only time-consuming part of this recipe is chopping the onion and dicing the pancetta.  Now if you really want to cut back on the effort you could purchase pancetta already diced (I guess you could even buy onions already diced), but I think this sauce is better with a bit bigger sized diced pieces which you can control if you do it yourself.  Once you get the sauce started, get your water going for the pasta and when the pasta is done, drain it and add it to the sauce and dinner is served!

For those of you cutting out the big, bad carbs from pasta, try this Amatriciana Sauce on some spiral sliced vegetable like zucchini “zoodles” (or even turnips or rutabagas).  I intended to do that until I discovered my zucchini was sitting a bit too long in my crisper, if you know what I mean! Secretly, I was happy my zucchini was mushy because sometimes you just gotta have real pasta!  And this Pasta with Amatriciana Sauce was just what I was craving for dinner last night.

Pasta with Amatriciana Sauce

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Ingredients

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• 1 Tbls. olive oil
• 1/2 lb. pancetta, diced (I used 6 slices that were about 1/4″ thick)
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 28 oz. box crushed tomatoes (I used Pomi)
• 1/2 C. white wine (opt.)
• salt & pepper
• 1/2 C. grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• 1 box linguini, bucatini or spaghetti
• Garnish: chopped parsley, if desired

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Instructions

1. In large skillet, heat olive oil. Add pancetta and cook until golden.
2. Add onions and cook until softened, then add garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook another minute (don’t let garlic burn).
3. Add tomatoes and wine. Simmer sauce until it thickens, about 15 minutes.
4. Add cheese, stir to combine.
5. Cook pasta according to package directions. When pasta is done, drain, then add to sauce.
6. Taste and add additional salt & pepper, if needed. Garnish with some chopped parsley, if desired.

Notes

Recipe slightly adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis’ Everyday Italian cookbook.