I was feeling rather ambitious last night.  Instead of letting the heat squelch me, I let it inspire me.  And by inspire, I mean make pasta.  Brent just bought me the pasta making attachment for my kitchen aid mixer, so I looked online for the perfect sauce to accompany the pasta.  I stumbled on The Italian Dish and tested the Bucatini all’ Amatriciana.  It’s like a classier version of spaghetti and meat sauce.  A version that stands up to 90 something degree heat.

If you don’t want to make pasta, and I don’t blame you…it’s a lot of work! just use regular thick spaghetti from the package.  If you love food as much as I do, you’ll find it worth the effort and you should make bucatini.  It’s basically a thick tube of spaghetti.

Here’s the recipe copy and pasted from The Italian Dish website:

Ingredients:

  • 3 ounces pancetta, cubed
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
  • 1/4 teaspoon red hot chili pepper (or to taste – mine was very fresh and hot)
  • 1/4 cup of dry white wine
  • 1 cup canned whole tomatoes and juice, crushed (use San Marzano if you can)*
  • 8 ounces Bucatini pasta (or spaghetti)
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese
  • salt to taste

 

Instructions:

Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil.

In a large fry pan, cook the pancetta over medium heat for several minutes until crisp but not brown.  Remove the pancetta with a slotted spoon and reserve, but leave the fat in the pan.  Add the olive oil, onions and chili pepper and cook for several minutes until the onions are just soft but not browning.

Add the white wine and cook for one minute.  Add the tomatoes (I just use my hand to crush them) and the juice and reserved cooked pancetta and cook over medium low heat, uncovered, for 15 minutes.  You want most of the liquid to cook off.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta until still a little firm.  With tongs, remove the pasta from the boiling water and place right into the tomato mixture. Thoroughly coat the pasta with the tomato mixture.  Turn off heat and add the cheese, tossing well.  Taste for salt and add if needed.  Serve immediately and pass extra Pecorino around.