Pasta alla Gricia

2025 Giro Stage 21: Roma

To wrap up the Giro, I wanted to make something truly historic, being that this is also a jubilee year. The jubilee centers around Catholicism and Vatican City (in particular). Also of note, yesterday's ride had a slight pause just before the warm-up to the starting point of the stage. The riders had an audience with the new pope, an extremely rare occasion. So, I decided to make Pasta alla gricia, a simple dish which dates back to around the year 400. I purchased some guanciale (pork jowl that looks like bacon) from The Italian Store in Arlington, VA and got working in the kitchen last night believing all the historical tie-ins and research would play together nicely. If a dish has been around for over 1600 years, clearly any recipe should work at this given time, right?  It didn’t go well. It was extraordinarily salty…like, can’t finish the serving salty. So, I went back about it for lunch today, with a single portion using the leftover guanciale I had and this was much better since I didn't oversalt the cooking water and did not solely use the saltier pecorino-romano cheese.

Pasta alla gricia

• 5 oz guanciale

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 10 oz dried mezzi rigatoni (these are half rigatoni, any short tubular pasta will do)

• 4 oz freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese

• 1 oz freshly grated pecorino cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Season with 1 tsp of salt. DO NOT aggressively season the water with salt like you normally would cook any other pasta dish!

Using a very sharp knife, slice off the thin hard bottom layer from the guanciale. Then cut the guanciale into ½-inch thick slabs. Stack the slabs and slice into ¼-inch batons. 

Dust the bottom surface of a 12 inch deep-sided stainless steel pan with freshly ground black pepper. Set over medium heat and toast for a minute. Transfer the black pepper to a large bowl (using a pastry brush makes this easy work) and return the empty skillet to the burner.

Place the sliced guanciale in the skillet. Lower the heat to medium-low. Be sure to either flip with tongs or stir the guanciale about every 4 minutes or so. You want the meat to just brown and the fat to be translucent. Remove using a slotted spoon and rest the guanciale on some paper towels. This will take about 12 minutes. 

Return the skillet to the burner, still with the rendered fat, and turn off the heat. 

Once the water is boiling, stir in the pasta and cook for about 9 minutes until just al dente (still a little stiff). After 6 minutes, dip a mug into the pot to capture some pasta cooking water and set aside.

While the pasta cooks, grate your cheeses and mix with the ground black pepper.

Once the pasta is al dente, drain the pasta (reserving the water and returning the pot of water to the burner) and add the pasta to the skillet with guanciale fat. Turn the burner to medium and toss the pasta in the fat. 

Lower the heat under the pasta water to low. 

Pour some of the reserved pasta water from the mug into the bowl of the cheese and pepper and stir with a spoon, adding enough just to make a thick slurry, nearly melting all of the cheese. It should not get soupy!

Add ⅓ of the cheese sauce to the pasta and toss the pasta and sauce in the skillet a few times. Turn off the heat under the skillet and stir vigorously to emulsify the mixture. 

Add in another third of the cheese sauce and toss together. Place the skillet on top of the pot of pasta water (the steam will provide a very gentle heat to the skillet and keep the cheese from clumping or becoming stringy) and stir vigorously. 

Add in the final third of the sauce, toss and stir over the steam pot. If the sauce is too tight, add a little of the pasta water from the mug - toss and stir until completely creamy. 

Add in most of the guanciale (reserving some for garnish) and toss once more. 

Divide among plates or bowls and serve immediately, topping with reserved guanciale and some extra cheese. 

______________________________ Copyright 2025, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.