Sometimes the solution to a problem comes when you take a step back and realize that you’ve been working too hard, and a radically simpler approach is called for. The solution to the bucatini all’amatriciana problem didn’t go like that.
It sounds so delicious and so easy. Amatriciana is a sauce that consists of my favorite things: tomatoes, onions, and bacon (or pancetta, or guanciale, but I think smoked bacon is best). It’s usually served with bucatini (which is like thick spaghetti with a hole down the middle) and topped with grated pecorino romano. How could this possibly go wrong?
Every possible way. Watery tomatoes. Sauce too chunky or too smooth. And above all, the sauce never seemed to get intimate with the pasta. I’d tried it a dozen times. I’d tried recipes from Cook’s Illustrated and The Italian Country Table and god knows where else.
Then, last Saturday, I made the ultimate amatriciana. It took several hours and created a pile of dirty dishes worth of one of those moundbuilder cultures. I didn’t come up with this myself, of course. It’s from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook.
Here’s how it works. You buy a big hunk of slab bacon. I got mine at Bavarian Meats, at Pike Place Market. I asked for a pound of slab bacon, and the woman said, “I don’t know how much is a pound. It varies in thickness too much.” She held the slab up on the counter and indicated her best guess with the knife. I said, “Maybe a little more.” She gave me a little more, and it was 1-1/4 pounds. Next time I’m accepting her guess, not that excess bacon is a problem.
Then you braise the bacon. Put it in the oven with some mirepoix, white wine, and chicken broth, and leave it there for about 2-1/2 hours. I’ve done many things with bacon before, but never this. Braised meats tend to give up most of their flavor to the sauce. Braised bacon stays bacony.
One the bacon is braised, you cut it into lardons, crisp it up in a pan with some onions, and stir in some roasted canned tomatoes and olive oil. Top with freshly grated pecorino romano.
The leftover braised bacon ended up in beef bourguignon, and it made the most silky and salty lardons you can imagine.
Do you use hot peppers?
Good question. Yes, a little bit of crushed red pepper flakes.
I have made that recipe and you’re right, it’s incredible. People couldn’t fathom what I’d done to the pork to make it so good. The post-braise crisping is a genius stroke. Leftover bacon can be used in a fantastic salmon-and-beans dish found elsewhere in the book. But I’ve always found “leftover bacon” to be a misnomer.