Bucatini All'amatriciana (Bucatini With Spicy Tomato and Pancetta Sauce) | Community Recipes | Nigella's Recipes (2024)

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Introduction

This is, at the moment, Coco's favourite pasta sauce. She has always liked it, even when she was very young and I used to make it a little less hot. You can do the same, adapting it slightly to please your Coco. This is my original recipe revisited by Coco (less wine, more onion), who now makes the sauce totally by herself and serves it with penne, simply because penne are her favourite pasta shape. But bucatini (spaghetti-like tubes) are the traditional shape for Amatriciana and usually all children love them because they are fun to suck up.

This is, at the moment, Coco's favourite pasta sauce. She has always liked it, even when she was very young and I used to make it a little less hot. You can do the same, adapting it slightly to please your Coco. This is my original recipe revisited by Coco (less wine, more onion), who now makes the sauce totally by herself and serves it with penne, simply because penne are her favourite pasta shape. But bucatini (spaghetti-like tubes) are the traditional shape for Amatriciana and usually all children love them because they are fun to suck up.

Bucatini All'amatriciana (Bucatini With Spicy Tomato and Pancetta Sauce) | Community Recipes | Nigella's Recipes (1)

Ingredients

Serves: 4-5

MetricCups

  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 350 grams pancetta cubes (unsmoked)
  • 1 onion (finely chopped)
  • 1 clove garlic (finely chopped)
  • 1 dried chilli (seeded and finely chopped)
  • 100 millilitres red wine
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes (450g)
  • 400 grams bucatini
  • 6 tablespoons mature pecorino (grated)
  • sea salt (to taste)
  • freshly ground pepper (to taste)
  • parmigiano reggiano cheese (grated to serve)
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 12⅜ ounces pancetta cubes (unsmoked)
  • 1 onion (finely chopped)
  • 1 clove garlic (finely chopped)
  • 1 dried chile (seeded and finely chopped)
  • 4 fluid ounces red wine
  • 1 tin diced tomatoes (450g)
  • 14⅛ ounces bucatini
  • 6 tablespoons mature pecorino (grated)
  • sea salt (to taste)
  • freshly ground pepper (to taste)
  • parmigiano reggiano cheese (grated to serve)

Method

Bucatini All'amatriciana (Bucatini With Spicy Tomato and Pancetta Sauce) is a community recipe submitted by Team Cupcake and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan large enough to contain the cooked pasta later and, when hot, throw in the pancetta and fry until crisp. Remove it to a plate with a fish slice.
  2. Now add the onion to the pan, season with a pinch of salt and saute for 7-8 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for a further minute, stirring frequently. Splash with the wine and let it bubble away to reduce by half. Pour in the chopped tomatoes and cook on moderate heat for about 20-25 minutes.
  3. Taste - your Coco's job - and add more salt if necessary and black pepper if you want, although the sauce is already quite hot due to the chilli.
  4. Cook the bucatini in plenty of salted water as usual.
  5. Drain thoroughly, giving the colander a few sharp shakes so that the water strapped in the holes of the bucatini comes out.
  6. Slide the pasta into the frying pan, add the pancetta, and shower with percorino. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes, turning the bucatini over and over with 2 forks.
  7. Serve straight from the pan, with Parmesan handed round.
  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan large enough to contain the cooked pasta later and, when hot, throw in the pancetta and fry until crisp. Remove it to a plate with a fish slice.
  2. Now add the onion to the pan, season with a pinch of salt and saute for 7-8 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for a further minute, stirring frequently. Splash with the wine and let it bubble away to reduce by half. Pour in the diced tomatoes and cook on moderate heat for about 20-25 minutes.
  3. Taste - your Coco's job - and add more salt if necessary and black pepper if you want, although the sauce is already quite hot due to the chilli.
  4. Cook the bucatini in plenty of salted water as usual.
  5. Drain thoroughly, giving the colander a few sharp shakes so that the water strapped in the holes of the bucatini comes out.
  6. Slide the pasta into the frying pan, add the pancetta, and shower with percorino. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes, turning the bucatini over and over with 2 forks.
  7. Serve straight from the pan, with Parmesan handed round.

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What 2 Others have said

  • Nigella always comes out first - great recipe, truly great flavour, this sauce works well with our favourite rigatoni and also conchiglie when the tubes are running low!

    Posted by carl3684 on 8th February 2017
  • Made this tonight and it was yummy. The pasta works well with the sauce, which is full of flavour. Will definitely be making again.

    Posted by Kltay23 on 22nd March 2013

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Bucatini All'amatriciana (Bucatini With Spicy Tomato and Pancetta Sauce) | Community Recipes | Nigella's Recipes (2)

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FAQs

What is bucatini best used for? ›

Ideal with sardines, all'amatriciana, or cuttlefish ink, as Neapolitan tradition dictates, bucatini is also perfect for original and unexpected combinations. And if cooked very al dente, it's also great for stuffing vegetables, as it can absorb the sauce and flavor while baking in the oven.

What is bucatini traditionally served with? ›

In Italian cuisine, bucatini is served with buttery sauces, guanciale, vegetables, cheese, eggs, and anchovies or sardines. One of the most common sauces to serve with bucatini is the amatriciana sauce, bucatini all'amatriciana. It is traditionally made with guanciale, a type of cured meat taken from the pork jowl.

How long do you cook bucatini pasta for? ›

To cook dried or fresh bucatini pasta, bring a large pot of water to boil and add salt to taste. For dried bucatini, add the pasta to the boiling water and stir. Cook for 8 to 12 minutes depending on the brand of pasta and the desired doneness, stirring occasionally to keep the strands from sticking together.

What is bucatini all amatriciana made of? ›

Amatriciana is cooked with the amazing flavors of guanciale, tomato sauce, pecorino romano cheese, and the bucatini pasta is perfect for it. This pasta noodle has a hole running through the middle to soak up all the flavors of the sauce from the inside out.

Do you rinse bucatini? ›

Do Not Rinse. Pasta should never, ever be rinsed for a warm dish. The starch in the water is what helps the sauce adhere to your pasta. The only time you should ever rinse your pasta is when you are going to use it in a cold dish like a pasta salad or when you are not going to use it immediately.

What is the point of bucatini? ›

Where spaghetti or linguine get coated with sauce, bucatini gets coated and filled with sauce. It's the ultimate delivery vehicle for velvety pasta sauces like cacio e pepe or carbonara. That hollow center gives you more sauce with each bite, and around here, we subscribe to the “More Sauce, More Life” lifestyle.

Do you break bucatini in half? ›

Don't Break the Pasta

Let the ends stick out until the submerged sections soften, about 1 minute. Then stir to bend the pasta and push it underwater. You don't want short strands. Pasta should be long enough to twirl around your fork.

Why is there a bucatini shortage in America? ›

I had confirmed that the bucatini shortage was real and understood that the bucatini shortage was a combination of factors: the pandemic's pasta demand, how hard it is to make bucatini because of its hole, De Cecco's strange and untimely barring from the U.S. border.

What does bucatini mean in Italian? ›

Bucatini, also known as perciatelli, is a thick spaghetti-like pasta with a hole running through the center. The name comes from Italian: buco, meaning "hole", while bucato or its Neapolitan variant perciato means "pierced". Bucatini is common throughout Lazio, particularly Rome.

How much bucatini for one person? ›

When you cook pasta, 2 ounces (56 g) of dry pasta per person is a good rule of thumb to follow. What does 2 ounces (56 g) of dry pasta look like? It depends on the shape.

Which is thicker spaghetti or bucatini? ›

That's right: bucatini is a thicker spaghetti noodle with a hole running through the middle of the pasta!

What to use pancetta for? ›

Pancetta — the Italian bacon made of pork belly meat — adds depth of flavor to all kinds of dishes. Thin strips make excellent wrappers for roasts and hors d'oeuvres like Jean-Georges Vongerichten's garlic-stuffed porcini mushrooms. Diced and pan-fried, pancetta gives extra interest to salads and veggie sides.

Should amatriciana be spicy? ›

Amatriciana needs to be a little bit spicy, and authorities are divided on whether that heat should come from black pepper or from chile peppers.

What is the purpose of the hole in bucatini? ›

Bucatini is spaghetti but thicker and with a hole in it, meaning it absorbs 200 percent more sauce than its thinner, hole-free brethren, due to math.

Should you break bucatini? ›

Don't Break the Pasta

Let the ends stick out until the submerged sections soften, about 1 minute. Then stir to bend the pasta and push it underwater. You don't want short strands. Pasta should be long enough to twirl around your fork.

Is bucatini supposed to be hard? ›

Pasta that is soft and mushy is usually overcooked, while if it's crunchy and hard, this is a good indication that you haven't cooked it for long enough. Pasta cooked perfectly tends to be tender on the inside and a bit firm on the outside.

Why is it so hard to find bucatini? ›

I had confirmed that the bucatini shortage was real and understood that the bucatini shortage was a combination of factors: the pandemic's pasta demand, how hard it is to make bucatini because of its hole, De Cecco's strange and untimely barring from the U.S. border.

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