Spaghetti Amatriciana

Dinner | Italian

Prep time: 5 min Cook time: 15 min Servings: 1

Whether you're living alone, having the night to yourself or need a quick meal after a long shift, this is a pasta recipe for one person. I wrote this recipe and filmed the video because I had lots of requests to do more recipes for one person, as most are for two, four or more.

So, Spaghetti Amatriciana is a quick, simple, and absolutely delicious pasta to make for yourself. It's spaghetti with a sauce that's built around guanciale.

The guanciale is rendered slowly until the fat is glossy and the meat is starting to crisp, then we'll make the tomato sauce in the same pan with garlic, chilli and white wine. This recipe makes enough sauce for two portions. Cook the pasta for one now and keep the rest in the fridge or freezer for later in the week.

Guanciale: You should be able to pick this up from the deli section in your local supermarket or a speciality grocer or deli. It's an ingredient that lasts a long time in the fridge so buy a big piece and use it across a few different pastas or dishes. If you can't get guanciale, you can sub it out for panchetta or some sort of smoky bacon.

Whole canned tomatoes: Generally better quality than pre-crushed in most brands, with less added liquid and more concentrated tomato flavour. Breaking them yourself during cooking gives you control over the final texture. Crush them roughly with a wooden spoon as they simmer to leave some texture, or break them down fully for a smoother sauce. San Marzano-style tomatoes are ideal if you can find them.

Pecorino Romano: Hard aged sheep’s milk cheese with a sharp, salty flavour. The traditional finish for the Roman pasta dishes. It has more bite than parmesan and a different saltiness that works better against the richness of the guanciale. Substitute with parmesan if needed; the dish will be slightly milder but still excellent. Grate it finely so it melts evenly into the pasta rather than clumping.

Equipment

Large frying pan
Large saucepan (for pasta)
Wooden spoon
Fine grater (for Pecorino)
Kitchen scales

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
75g guanciale, diced
pinch chilli flakes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
50ml dry white wine
400g can whole tomatoes
sea salt and pepper to season
150g spaghetti
30g Pecorino, grated

Directions

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium.
Cook guanciale for 6-8 minutes, stirring, until fat renders and starts to brown.
Stir in chilli flakes and garlic, cook for a further minute, then add wine and deglaze pan, scraping the fond from the bottom with a wooden spoon.
Add tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally and breaking up tomatoes, for 5-6 minutes, until slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper.
Reserve half of this sauce for later use. Either refrigerated or frozen in a small airtight container.
Cook spaghetti in a large saucepan of salted boiling water according to packet directions.
Transfer pasta to the frying pan along with ¼ cup (60ml) of the cooking water and toss in the sauce until well coated.
Stir in half the cheese, then serve sprinkled with remaining cheese.

Recipe notes

Chef Tips

Render the guanciale low and slow

Start over medium heat, not high. The fat needs 6 to 8 minutes to melt out of the guanciale before the meat starts to colour. Too much heat crisps the outside before the interior fat has rendered, leaving you with tough, chewy pieces. You want the fat translucent and the meat just starting to turn golden at the edges. The rendered fat left in the pan is the flavour base for the whole sauce.

Use the pasta water

Reserve at least ½ cup of the pasta cooking water before you drain. The starch in it is what helps the sauce coat and cling to the spaghetti. Add a quarter cup when you transfer the pasta to the sauce pan and toss vigorously over medium heat so the sauce emulsifies rather than sitting separately on the pasta. Add more water a splash at a time if the sauce gets too tight. This step makes the difference between pasta with sauce on top and pasta properly dressed in sauce.

Storage

The sauce (without pasta) keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. This recipe deliberately makes enough sauce for 2 serves. Reserve the second portion in an airtight container straight after cooking. To use later, reheat the sauce in a pan, add freshly cooked pasta with a splash of pasta water, toss to coat and finish with Pecorino. Do not store cooked pasta in the sauce as it absorbs the liquid and goes soft.

FAQs

Do I have to use guanciale? Traditionally yes, and it makes a genuine difference. Guanciale has more fat than pancetta and a specific uncured pork flavour that the dish is built around. Pancetta is the best substitute and gives a very similar result. Bacon works in a pinch but the smoky flavour shifts the dish noticeably away from its Roman character. Worth finding guanciale from an Italian deli if you can.

Can I skip the wine? You can. The wine deglazes the pan and adds background acidity and depth to the sauce. If you’d rather leave it out, add an extra splash of pasta water to deglaze and a small squeeze of lemon juice or a teaspoon of red wine vinegar with the tomatoes to recover some of the acidity. The sauce will be slightly rounder and less layered without it but still very good.

Why use whole canned tomatoes instead of crushed? Whole tomatoes tend to be better quality in most brands, less watery and with more concentrated flavour than pre-crushed. Crushing them yourself during cooking also means you control the final texture. Break them down more for a smoother sauce, less for a chunkier one. With pre-crushed, that texture decision has already been made for you, and the liquid content is usually higher.

What pasta shape works best? Spaghetti is the most common and works very well. Bucatini is the traditional Roman choice: thick, hollow pasta like spaghetti with a hole through the middle, which holds the sauce inside the tube as well as on the outside. Rigatoni is also used in some versions. Avoid very thin pasta like angel hair as it doesn’t have enough body to hold up to the richness of the sauce.