Amatriciana sauce

Amatriciana sauce, known in Italian as sugo all'amatriciana (alla matriciana in Romanesco dialect) or as salsa all'amatriciana, is a pasta sauce made with tomatoes, guanciale (cured pork cheek), pecorino romano cheese, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil, dry white wine, and salt. Originating in the comune (municipality) of Amatrice (in the mountainous province of Rieti of the Lazio region), the amatriciana is one of the best known pasta sauces in present-day Roman and Italian cuisine. The Italian government has named it a prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale (PAT) of Lazio, and amatriciana tradizionale is registered as a traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) in the EU and the UK.

Development
Amatriciana derives from a dish called "pasta alla gricia". The origin of the word gricia is unclear. In papal Rome, the grici were sellers of common edible foods, who got this name because many of them came from Valtellina, at that time a possession of the Swiss canton of Grigioni. According to another hypothesis, it is named after the frazione (hamlet) of Grisciano, in the comune (municipality) of Accumoli, near Amatrice. The sauce—nowadays named also amatriciana bianca —was, and still is, prepared with guanciale (cured pork cheek) and grated pecorino romano. At some point, a little olive oil was added to the recipe. In the 1960s, amatriciana sauce was still prepared in this way in Amatrice itself.

The invention of the first tomato sauces (and the probably earliest date for the introduction of tomato in the gricia, creating amatriciana) dates to the late 18th century. Tomatoes were introduced to Europe through the Columbian Exchange via Spain. The first written record of pasta with tomato sauce can be found in the 1790 cookbook L'Apicio Moderno by Roman chef Francesco Leonardi.

The amatriciana recipe became increasingly famous in Rome over the 19th and early 20th centuries, due to the centuries-old connection between Rome and Amatrice. The recipe was well received and rapidly went on to become a classic of Roman cuisine, although it originated elsewhere. The name of the dish in the Romanesco dialect eventually became matriciana due to the apheresis typical of this dialect.

While tomato-less gricia is still prepared in central Italy, it is the tomato-enriched amatriciana that is better known throughout Italy and elsewhere. While in Amatrice the dish is prepared with spaghetti, bucatini is now most commonly used in Rome. Other types of dry pasta (particularly rigatoni) are also used.

Variants
The recipe is known in several variants depending, among other things, on the availability of ingredients. In Amatrice, use of guanciale and tomato is typical and onion is not favoured, although it is shown in the classical handbooks of Roman cuisine. The former mayor of Amatrice, Sergio Pirozzi, went so far as to say, "Garlic in amatriciana, never. And no onion, either, whatever some may say." When the celebrity chef Carlo Cracco stated that an unpeeled clove of garlic could be sautéd with the other ingredients and removed before serving, calling it his "secret ingredient", the municipal government of Amatrice retorted on its official website that "the only ingredients in a true amatriciana sauce are guanciale, pecorino, white wine, San Marzano tomatoes, black pepper and peperoncino". For frying, olive oil is most commonly used, but strutto (lard) is used as well. For cheese either pecorino romano or Amatrice's pecorino (from the Sibillini Mountains or Monti della Laga areas) can be used.