Amatriciana sauce is one of the condiments most known in Italian cuisine, easy to prepare and full of flavor, just like Puttanesca sauce. The original recipe of one of the world’s most beloved Italian sauces is simple, quick and delicious: pasta alla carbonara, pasta alla norma and four-cheese pasta are just a few of the first courses of the tradition that never miss on our tables. Today we’ll see how to prepare Amatriciana sauce with guanciale from Amatrice, a perfect condiment to use for a flavorful first course.
Making Amatriciana sauce at home is really simple and requires a few quality ingredients. The guanciale, slowly browned, releases its fat creating the ideal base for the tomato, which during cooking becomes flavored and naturally thickens. The result is a full-bodied and fragrant sauce, ready to be used immediately or stored for the following days. This preparation can, in fact, be made in advance so you always have a tasty condiment available for your first courses. A traditional sauce that never goes out of style and always wins over the whole family.
In this recipe I prepare Amatriciana sauce with the addition of onion, as often happens in home preparations, but there is of course also the version without onion provided by the traditional recipe.
Ready to head to the kitchen?
Let’s go, but first as always I remind you that if you want to stay updated on all my other recipes, you can follow my Facebook page and my Instagram profile and find many others in my book “Sicily on the Table”.
Take a look:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Budget-friendly
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 5 servings
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 7 oz guanciale (pork jowl) (from Amatrice)
- 14 oz peeled tomatoes
- 1/3 cup white wine
- 3.5 oz onion
- to taste salt
- to taste chili pepper
Tools
- Pan
How to prepare Amatriciana sauce
How to use Amatriciana sauce:
Amatriciana sauce is a perfect condiment to prepare several traditional Italian first courses. It can be used to dress classic pasta all’amatriciana and make a simple and tasty first course in a few minutes.
Discover my spaghetti all’amatriciana with onion recipe here.
Let it brown over low heat for 7-8 minutes in a heavy-bottomed pan; this way the fat will slowly melt and become translucent and the meat will become crispy and golden. Stir often being careful not to burn it, then deglaze with the white wine and let it evaporate over high heat. Remove the guanciale with a slotted spoon and set it aside.
In the same pan with the cooking fat from the guanciale, add the whole (de-seeded) chili pepper and let the chopped onion wilt; once golden, add the peeled tomatoes crushed with a fork. Cook over moderate heat for 15 minutes and adjust salt if necessary.
Remove the chili from the sauce and add the guanciale, cook for another 1 minute, stirring well, then turn off the heat. The sauce is ready to dress the pasta—remember to finish with a sprinkling of Pecorino Romano or Pecorino di Amatrice.
Storage and tips
The sauce keeps in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, well sealed in an airtight container.
Many make pasta all’amatriciana without onion; I prefer the version with onion which is a bit sweeter, but I assure you that the variant without onion is delicious as well.
