Simply good
Pasta, cheese and bacon come together in a simple, indulgent dish
If you’re a traditionalist, look away now. What follows is a modern twist on an ancient dish, Pasta Alla Gricia. If you do turn away, however, you’ll miss out on a one-pot wonder that is perfect for evenings when you’re craving an easy indulgence but don’t want to order that cheesy pizza.
Traditional Pasta Alla Gricia, which is said to be a dish of Roman origins, first enjoyed centuries ago by Roman shepherds, is enduring because it delivers big flavor with simple ingredients. It is part of the “cucina povera,” a term used to describe the cooking of the country’s poor. Such dishes as carbonara and cacio e pepe also fall under that category.
Pasta is tossed with crispy guanciale (cured pork jowl), pasta cooking water and grated pecorino Romano. The fat from the rendered meat, the starchy water and the grated cheese, when vigorously stirred with the pasta, emulsify into a glossy, porky, cheesy sauce that coats the individual spaghetti strands.
Pile it into a bowl, and dig in. So good.
In her cookbook, “Keeping it Simple: Easy Weeknight OnePot Recipes,” (Hardie Grant, 2020), author Yasmin Fahr recommends the traditional guanciale, but she adds bite-size pieces of kale to help us meet our daily vegetable requirements.
She also gives us permission to substitute pancetta or bacon for the harder-to-find guanciale. And she gives the thumbsup to trying other cheeses, such as Parmesan.
I’m with Fahr. This preparation can be a mix-and-match affair quickly pulled together with ingredients that most of us have in the refrigerator and pantry.
Along with making the dish with pancetta and bacon, I’ve experimented by subbing in spinach for Fahr’s kale. Next, I want to try arugula and grana Padano.
My favorite combination so far? Pancetta, spinach and Parmesan because this protein and the spinach are milder tasting and cook quickly; and finely grated Parmesan emulsifies so easily into the sauce.