Bucatini All'Amatriciana

I love this recipe! I first had it on my first night in Rome at the start of my semester abroad in college. The pasta and sauce were homemade, so this recipes requires some commitment as it takes a bit of time to complete!

I got my pasta recipe from the KitchenAid pasta press manual. Jump to page 10 for the Basic Egg Noodle Pasta. I actually make this recipe in my Cuisinart food processor instead of in my KitchenAid mixer.

1. Put 3 1/2 cups of sifted flour in the food processor, add 1 tsp salt, pulse to combine.
2. Crack four large eggs into a measuring cup. Turn on your food processor and add the eggs. 
3. If the dough does not form into a ball slowly add in cold water, maximum 1 TBSP, until the dough collects into a ball on one side of the food processor.
4. From here, knead the dough for about 30 seconds and pull out walnut-sized pieces of dough to drop into the pasta press. 
5. Follow instructions and guidance from the manual, in regards to speed, etc.

I made a video of making the pasta! It is fairly long, so if you don't have time to watch it all, here are a few tips from it:

• King Arthur Flour is the best, because Dave's grandma says so :)
• If you make your dough in the food processor, make sure you have the dough blade attached
• "Sifted flour" is different "flour sifted". The first wants you to sift (or add air to) the flour and catch the flour below the sifter/strainer in your measuring cup. The latter, flour sifted, wants you to measure out the amount of flour then sift it to separate and add air to the flour.
• Quick math lesson: 7/8 is halfway between 3/4 cup and 1 cup. (You need to know this when determining if you have enough eggs!)
• Place a wet paper towel underneath your cutting board to prevent the board from sliding across your countertops! 

The Amatriciana sauce is so tasty and so simple. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!

1. Small chop 2 yellow onions
2. Dice 1/2 pound of pancetta in strips. I like to ask the deli counter to slice the pancetta about 1/4" thick.
3. Heat a dutch oven, or something similar with a heavy bottom, over low-medium with some EVOO in the bottom. Add in the pancetta and cook until it's toasty and brown.
4. Add in the onions and continue cooking until onions turn translucent
5. Pour in two 28 ounce cans of whole Italian San Marzano tomatoes. As these cook the tomatoes get soft and I like to go after everything with a potato masher to break up the tomatoes.
6. Bring to a boil and then drop it to a simmer for at least one hour... the longer the better! Season with salt and adjust as you go along.

To finish your pasta in the sauce, pull out 3-4 ladles of sauce and set aside. Remove the pasta from salted boiling water one minute early and add it to the pan of sauce. Add in 1/2 cup of grated parmigiano-reggiano and a swirl of EVOO, then stir to combine. Add any remaining sauce, as needed. 

Mangia and enjoy!!