Did we really take the summer off from this little project? I guess so. But we're back! Fall is here, which really gets me inspired to cook. Don't get me wrong, I love grilling and barbeque, but nothing beats slow-cooked dishes like braised short ribs (coming up shortly . . .). In the meantime, let's pick up where we left off: guanciale.
This is pretty fatty stuff, so you need to slice it thinly then slowly bring the heat up in the pan to render the fat. I did this on the stove, but I probably could have cooked it on a cookie sheet in the oven (as I do with bacon).
Once the fat (mostly) renders, drain on paper towels:
Then saute red onions, garlic, the basic tomato sauce, red pepper flakes, and the guanciale in the rendered fat (I drained a bit first):
Now, you would normally finish this dish by adding cooked bucatini, a dried tubular pasta that resembles spaghetti. Mario refers to bucatini as "garden hoses" in the book. But here's the thing: I went to two Whole Foods, Kings, Stop N Shop, and Fairway and none of them carried bucatini. Hey guys, get on that!!!
Rather than make the trip downtown from work to the Chelsea market, where I know they have bucatini (thanks to a tip from Victoria over at Cooking Zuni), I decided to substitute. I know, no substitutes. But hear me out--this was a substitute that made the dish more complicated, so it wasn't a shortcut substitute, it was a "hey, I'm going to make this more difficult and time-consuming than it needs to be" kinda substitute. Rather than tossing some dried pasta into boiling, salted water, I made fresh paparadelle using the recipe for fresh pasta from the book. After cooking until al dente in the salted, boiling water (2 tablespoons of salt for 6 quarts of water), I added the fresh pasta to the sauce and cooked it for a few more minutes.
And here's the dish:
This was delicious in all its porky, fatty goodness! There's definitely a unique, slightly salty pork flavor from the guanciale that's cut by the sweetness of the red onions. The red pepper adds just a tiny kick at the end. This was a plate-cleaner, easily. Now, I still have 3 pounds of guanciale left . . .
Welcome back. I am VERY glad to see you. I have taken a similar amount of time off from Zuni and will be getting back into the swing of things too.
This dish looks delicious. I'll be interested to know which you prefer when you get around to making it with dried bucatini/perciatelli.
One tip about cooking bucatini, since it has a hole in the middle, it can go from being al dente to soft extremely quickly so you need to be tasting it scrupulously while its cooking.
I make this often but use Marcella's recipe and have always made it with pancetta and yellow onions. I have my Mario at the ready so I am going to try this, especially since using red onions really appeals to me.
When you come in to the City to go to Buonitalia, check out the Highline, the promenade that has been made out of a defunct railroad track. There's an entrance right by Chelsea Market.
I look forward to hearing more from you.
Look forward to hearing more from you.
Hey David, That looks great! We just made the same dish with the last of our guanciale, but the only way we were able to manage it was by ordering our bucatini online (although we've since gotten a hint on a more locally available option). I love using fresh pasta though -- nice substitution!
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