My husband and I just had our 10th wedding anniversary this week. (Holy moly!) That coincided well with our daughters’ 8th birthday, Easter and her Easter vacation. To celebrate these very important occasions in style, we decided to go to Rome for the holiday. We spent a week there on our honeymoon, so for sentimental reasons, it was perfect. It’s also my happy place.
Beautiful Rome…
Rome in spring is heaven for many reasons – fewer tourists, flowers in bloom, and the weather is generally glorious. Romans (and I) also love spring vegetables and have many traditional dishes featuring fava beans, artichokes, peas, lettuces, and spring onions. For a vegetable lover like me, it really is a good place to be in April and May. Did I mention chicory with chili and garlic? For those less enthusiastic about eating their greens, keep in mind that said veggies are frequently prepared with porky goodness in the form of guanciale. If you have not had or heard of guanciale, it is an unsmoked, cured pork jowl. It’s used in the same manner as bacon or pancetta. I find it to be more satisfying as it tastes richer, subtler, meatier, fattier, and adds more depth, versus just tasting like salt.
Tonnarelli alla Gricia with Artichokes
One of the most iconic Roman pasta dishes using guanciale is Pasta alla Gricia (gree-chah). It’s an incredibly simple preparation that contains pasta sauced with guanciale, grated Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper and a touch of extra virgin olive oil. I had tried it before but never worshipped it the way I do its more popular cousins Spaghetti alla Carbonara and Bucatini all’Amatriciana. Recently though, Frank Bruni of the New York Times put out an Op-Ed piece mentioning gricia at length. This made me want to try it again while we were there.
I had the perfect opportunity at a restaurant called Trattoria da Cesare al Casaletto, which I had heard about from food writers Elizabeth Minchilli and Katie Parla in her book Eating & Drinking in Rome. They both gushed about the place, so I was eager to go. Long story short, we liked the restaurant so much, we ended up going twice!
Although we enjoyed all of the preparations we tried, one very much stood out – Tonnarelli alla Gricia con i Carciofi. They prepared it like traditional Pasta alla Gricia, with the addition of fresh artichoke and homemade tonnarelli. Typically you see dried pasta, even though fresh is not unheard of. It was utterly delicious. Like many traditional dishes, the flavors are perfectly balanced – there is richness from the pork fat, saltiness and tang from the cheese, a kick from the pepper and the artichoke brought a lovely freshness, celebrating what was in season. Awesome.
When we returned to Bologna, I was inspired to try it at home. After a quick detox from our week of sheer gluttony, I came up with the recipe below. We were all very pleased!
Things to keep in mind:
I’ve included a recipe for making fresh tonnarelli by hand. If you do not wish to make it, you can use good quality dried spaghetti, rigatoni, or even mezze maniche. In Rome, people generally buy fresh tonnarelli at a fresh pasta shop anyway. Frankly, most of us don’t have that option, and I wanted to try making it. Oddly enough, every time I’ve searched for a recipe for tonnarelli dough in my many cookbooks, I’ve hardly seen one. While I was in Rome, I asked a pasta maker at a local shop what they put in their dough and she gave me her general ratios. That’s what I used as my guide.
Tonnarelli is another name for Maccheroni alla Chitarra, which is a shape very popular in the nearby region of Abruzzo. It looks like a long, square noodle, similar to spaghetti. To make it you need a chitarra which is a wooden, rectangular box strung with taut, thin metal wires on it that you roll the dough over, letting the noodles fall through. (See the photo below.) You may also use the spaghetti cutter attachment on your hand-cranked pasta machine if you have one. The results will be similar enough. If you have neither of those things, roll your dough out by hand to about 3 mm thick and cut the noodles with a knife, also 3 mm thick. Use a wine bottle if you don’t have a rolling pin. In other words, do your best and your family will love you!
I use a simple weight ratio here – 2:1:1; twice as much pasta as guanciale and artichoke. If you calculate recipes by weight, you can easily add or subtract portions, depending on how many people you want to serve. For example, if you want a small portion, calculate 70 grams (2.5 oz.) of pasta per person and then 35 grams (1.25 oz.) of pork and 35 grams (1.25 oz.) of cleaned and thinly sliced fresh artichoke. If you have a bigger appetite you can go higher. This is how most Italians cook – by weight and that’s how Italian grandmothers can whip together a meal in no time, because they have some basic weights and ratios in their head. It makes things easier. Much easier. I can’t recommend highly enough the importance of a scale to help cook, to assist with portion control and to avoid food waste.
When buying your ingredients, try to get the best you can as there is hardly anything to this dish. Use Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated, fresh-cracked black pepper and the best guanciale or pancetta you can find. It will be the difference between a good dish, and a great dish. I would not recommend frozen, canned or jarred artichokes. If you can’t find fresh, or are intimidated by cleaning them, just make a normal pasta alla gricia. Keep in mind that Italian cuisine is all about great ingredients.
For those who don’t know how to clean artichokes: Fill a medium to large bowl with water and squeeze half of the lemon into it. The acidulated water will help keep your artichokes from turning brown. Rub your hands with the other lemon half to keep your hands from turning brown! Remove the tough outer leaves until you see a lighter yellow color on the bottom half of the leaves. Once you get to that part, cut off about the top 1/3 of the artichoke, (about an inch or so). With a sharp paring knife, trim away the thin layer of green at the base of the artichoke, to get to the tender white part. Once cleaned, halve and cut out the fuzzy choke with a little spoon or paring knife. Once cleaned, slice very thin and set aside in the water.
Happy cooking and eating!
Ingredients
- For the pasta:
- 150 grams (5.25 oz) "00" flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
- 150 grams (5.25 oz) durum wheat flour (farina di grano duro rimacinata), finely ground
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- or
- 1 pound of spaghetti, rigatoni or mezzo maniche
- For the sauce:
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 225 grams (8 oz) guanciale or pancetta, cut into matchsticks, about 1/4-inch by 1-inch
- 1 lemon, to clean artichokes
- 225 grams (8 oz) artichokes, cleaned, trimmed, and thinly sliced, about 3 lg
- Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- salt, to taste
- 1 - 1 /2 cups Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated, or more to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the pasta. On a clean work surface, combine both kinds of flour and form a well in the center by creating a circular wall of flour with enough space in the center to hold your liquids. Crack the eggs into the well and start beating them with a fork, slowly adding the flour bit by bit from your circle of flour in a circular motion, adding room temperature water as necessary to create a smooth dough that is moist, yet firm and not sticky. Once you've added enough liquid to incorporate all of the flour, knead the dough until it's very smooth, pliable and doesn't stick to your hands. It should take about 8-10 minutes.
- Form into a ball, flatten it a bit, cover tightly in plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to an hour to let the dough rest. You should have about 450 grams/1 pound of dough. Can be made 1 day in advance and kept in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before rolling out.
- While the dough rests, prep all of your sauce ingredients.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling add coarse sea salt or kosher salt.
- Once your dough has rested, roll it out with a pasta machine or rolling pin until it is about 3 mm thick. If you have a chitarra, cut out your noodles on the chitarra with a rolling pin, making sure to start with a length of pasta shorter than the chitarra as it will lengthen as you roll it out. If using a machine, use your spaghetti attachment, or cut thin noodles with a knife. If the dough is a little sticky, toss with flour to keep the noodles from sticking to one another and set aside until you're ready to boil.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add the tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and cook the guanciale until it begins to brown at the edges and it has rendered its fat. Set aside in a bowl and if desired, remove all but 2 tablespoons of the fat.
- Drain the artichokes and add them to the pan with 3-4 tablespoons of boiling water. Stir and cook, covered, until tender, stirring now and then. Add more water as necessary. Taste for seasoning, keeping in mind that the pork contains salt. Add the guanciale and stir. Cook for a couple of minutes on low heat to combine the flavors.
- Boil the pasta. If using fresh, it will only take a few minutes. If using dried, cook until al dente, using the pasta package as a guide for timing. Once the pasta is done to the desired degree, add the pasta directly into the sauce, using tongs or a skimmer. Stir and add pasta water as necessary to create a creamy sauce consistency. (I listen for squishy sounds as I stir it. It needs to be fluid, not dry.)
- Turn off the heat and add some of the grated cheese. Check for seasoning. Stir to melt and serve immediately with some fresh ground black pepper and more grated cheese.
Notes
The portions above are 4 for large portions, or 6 small.
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[…] recipe, like my Tonnarelli alla Gricia with Artichokes, is inspired by a trip to Rome. After a very strict lockdown, we took a couple of well-needed […]
[…] chitarra (a “guitar” cutter from Abruzzo for making maccheroni alla chitarra and tonnarelli) […]