Flaming Hot Pasta Amatriciana!

1 Tbsp olive oil

100 gr. of thinly sliced guanciale, pancetta, or chopped bacon (non smoked)

Black pepper

Half an onion, minced 

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 Can of peeled tomatoes with juices, crushed by hand (400gr)

Grated Pecorino

175 grams of semolina, all-purpose, or tipo”00″ flour

Half-teaspoon of salt

2 eggs

1 egg yoke

A bit of water if the dough is not coming together 

I was 19 years old and just started traveling through Australia.  In my first week I met a group of Italians and they taught me how to make pasta Amatriciana. It was easy to make and fucking delicious.  During my travels I made this meal many times. Sometimes, I ate it alone but most of the times I shared it with new friends from all over the world. This is a special meal for me and I would love to share it with you.

You can make this meal with dried pasta from the store but if you’d like to have lots of fun and take it to the next level, then you should really try to make your own pasta. Don’t worry it’s easy.

How to make the pasta

You take 175 grams of flour and pour it onto your working bench. Then, with a stick, a fork or your fingers, open a hole in the centre. You’ll want it to be relatively wide so the eggs will fit inside this hole.

When you have added all eggs in the centre of your flour pile start gradually pushing the flour into the pool of eggs using your fork, stick or your fingertips

When the eggs are mixed into the flour you will probably have a very wet and sticky dough. At this point you can use a bench scraper to scrape all the remaining flour off your working bench and fold it into your dough.

Once you have done this and the dough feels firm and dry you can start kneading it. This dough is a lot tougher than the pizza or bread dough, so you will have to use all your strength kneading this little dough ball. After this 10 min work out the gluten network is developed, this is necessary to create a delicious, snappy, elastic, and tasty pasta.

After the kneading wrap your dough in Clingfilm and let it rest for about 1 hour at room temperature. In this time the dough will fully hydrate and the gluten will have a chance to rest.

This gives you the time to fire up your outdoor oven. When the fire is burning and it’s at a low temperature of around 100°C you can start baking the meat. 

Put a bit of oil in your baking tray, one teaspoon. Add guanciale and sauté it until crisp and golden, about 4 minutes. Add onion, garlic and a bit of black pepper; cook until the onion starting to caramelise. 

Take the baking tray out of the oven, add quarter or half minced chilli-pepper, and then add a can of peeled tomatoes with juices crushed by hand. Now, fill the empty can of tomatoes with water and add half of it into your baking tray

Then put the baking tray on top of your oven, it will keep it warm while you can get back to your dough.

Take your dough out of the Clingfilm and place it on top of your floured working surface. 

Start rolling it with a rolling pin until it’s super thin: 1 mm.  Now, fold it double 2 times and roll it out again, this is called laminating. It will improve the look, bite and taste of your pasta. Best is to repeat this laminating process a few times

When that’s done. Lightly flour the surface of your dough, roll it up and start cutting it creating your pasta

Place the pasta into your baking pan together with the other ingredients. Place the pan into the oven for about 15 minutes at 125° C. Take it out every 3/5 minutes to gently stir it, rotate your baking tray and add some water if necessary. This is because the water in the sauce will reduce very quickly, so keep on checking it 🙂

The last few minutes it’s best to stop adding water, you want to let the sauce reduce so it becomes nice and sticky.

Finally take your self-made pasta Amatriciana out of the oven cover it with a nice layer of Pecorino.

Share it with your loved ones and enjoy  x