Go-to dish: Linguine All’Amatriciana (Linguine in the style of the women of Amatrice), inspired by Mario Batali’s Bucatini All’Amatriciana.

I’m hoping to post a bunch of these in the upcoming months. The basic gist behind them is simple: my go-to dishes are things I know I can pull off blindfolded with my hands behind my back. (Figuratively speaking, of course.) I figured I’d share what I learned with you all so you can enjoy what my culinary (mis)adventures have brought.

This dish is an amazing and deceptively complicated pasta dish. You’ll end up with a really flavorful result that tastes great, and makes for a really nice dinner, with some pretty minimal prep work. This particular recipe is what I use for making myself a meal, with enough left over for a light lunch the following day. One tip: make sure your mise en place* is ready before you start cooking. Once this dish starts shucking and jiving, you’ve got to be ready to go along for the ride.

Ingredients:

½-2/3 Pound of Linguine (White, for crying out loud.)

1/3 Pound of Guanciale, sliced thin by a salumiere (unless you have a meat slicer at home), then cut into about 1-inch pieces.*

1 Red onion, sliced into half-moons.

3 cloves of garlic, sliced thin

½ bottle of Bertolli Tomato & Basil sauce (In my opinion, the best stuff you can possibly buy in major supermarkets. It doesn’t beat homemade, but I don’t have time to make my own sauce for my pasta.)

Dried red pepper flakes to taste. (Usually, I start with a tablespoon, less if I’m not in a spicy mood, more if I’m feeling feisty, or I need to clear out my sinuses.)*

¼ cup shredded Parmigiano Reggiano, plus more to top the dish (If you need to get the cheap stuff, it won’t kill the dish, but I love me some good quality Parmigiano.)

¼ cup shredded Pecorino Romano (Personally, I think it’s way easier to screw up Romano than Parmesan. If you can’t find good Pecorino, just double the Parmigiano.)

Garnish: Chiffonade Parsley. (This is if you want to impress someone. If you’re serving for someone else, top with Parmigiano, then no more than a quarter teaspoon of parsley. Otherwise, save yourself some work, and lay off the garnish. It’s just there to look pretty.)*

Salt, preferably sea salt.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Equipment:

1 large (6-8 quart) pasta pot with lid

1 large (12+ inch) cast iron skillet/ big steel frying pan.

1 small (2-4 quart) saucepan with lid

1 ladle

1 spatula

Instructions:

1. Get your mise en place done.

2. Put a full pot of water on the stove, and set it on high heat. Let it come to a boil while you’re doing the rest of this.

2. Add olive oil to your skillet over medium heat. (Enough to lightly coat the bottom) Allow the oil to come up to temperature. Add guanciale, and render the fat off (you’ll see the white parts turn translucent, and the maroon parts turn this pretty pale pink) for about five minutes. It’s done when the guanciale is starting to brown at the edges and get crispy.

3. Add the pasta sauce to the saucepan, put the lid on, (otherwise it will splatter all over the place) and bring to a simmer.

4. Add the onions, garlic and chili flakes. Keep your eyes away from the fumes for a little while. The chili flakes may add a pepper-spray-esque quality to them. Saute until the onions are translucent, about 5-7 minutes. You want to make sure that the onions become flexible and translucent, but not without structure.

5. When the water has come to a boil, stick the pasta in for two minutes less than the package instructions. Ideally, you want to have the pasta done when your sauce is done, but if you have to wait on the pasta, that’s not bad. Waiting on the sauce is less optimal.

6. Add a ladleful or two of sauce to the onion-garlic-chili-guanciale mixture you have going. Simmer that whole business for about three minutes. At around the one minute mark, TASTE YOUR FRAKKING SAUCE. Figure out what it needs (More garlic? More chili? More cowbell?) and add that. (Adding a cowbell is not recommended, due to food safety concerns.)

7. Drain the pasta, retaining a couple ladlefuls of the water in case you need to loosen the sauce.

8. Add the pasta to the sauce, and toss to coat. If the sauce is too thick, add the pasta water, one ladleful at a time. You shouldn’t really need more than two. Simmer for two minutes in the pan.

9. Add the shredded Pecorino and Parmigiano to the top of the pasta/sauce mixture, then remove your skillet from the heat. Toss to coat the pasta, then serve immediately.

10. Add additional Parmigiano to taste, and nom.

The finished product (apologies for the crummy iPhone picture):

*Mise en place is the fancy french term for ingredients prepared in advance, as well as preparing ingredients in advance (it’s used as both a noun and a verb). In restaurant work, it’s often shortened to the more colloquial meez.

*Guanciale is a really fatty type of salumi (Italian cured pork products), and is special enough (click here if you want to know exactly where it’s from. Not for the faint of heart, or people who don’t like to think their meat was originally a part of an animal.) that unless you live near a salumiere (someone who sells salumi), you probably won’t be able to get it. In that case, pancetta is an acceptable replacement, and if you can’t get pancetta, then use an unsmoked bacon. But for this dish, nothing beats guanciale.

*I’ve also had pretty decent success with Frank’s Red Hot Hot Sauce when red pepper flakes weren’t available. The key with getting that right is to not be afraid to go balls out with it, (I must have used at least 3 tablespoons when all was said and done) and TASTE, TASTE, TASTE.

*If you’re getting served this dish with a garnish, look impressed. It will do wonders for the chef to know that you think their food looks good. Of course, how you react to its taste is up to you.