The Four Iconic Roman Pastas You Must Try
Romans adore pasta, and no pasta is more cherished than the four iconic Roman dishes found on every good trattoria menu in the city. These dishes, though they riff off the same core ingredients, each have their own unique personality, story, and flavor. With wonderful guanciale (cured pork jowl) and pecorino romano (aged sheep cheese) taking center stage, each dish offers a delicious representation of the excellent local produce so readily available in Rome. When in Rome, make sure you taste each one and savor a bit of the Eternal City’s history with every bite.
Here’s the Local Aromas guide to the top four famous Roman pasta dishes:
Carbonara
Everyone has heard of carbonara, but what you’ve tasted outside Italy is unlikely to resemble the real thing. Romans turn their noses up at the international variations of their beloved carbonara, which are generally heavier and creamier, often containing mushrooms, ham, garlic, or even peas. The authentic Roman carbonara recipe is a simple combination of just four ingredients: a velvety sauce of whisked egg and pecorino cheese studded with crunchy guanciale and given a hefty dose of black pepper—absolutely no cream allowed! Although often served with spaghetti, in Rome carbonara is typically made with rigatoni, whose tube shape is perfect for holding the flavorful pieces of guanciale.
The name ‘carbonara’ is thought to derive from the Italian word carbone, meaning coal. Theories about its origins include that it was originally cooked over a charcoal fire, served to coal miners, or earned its name because the flecks of black pepper resembled coal. Another popular theory is that carbonara was born from the rations of powdered egg and bacon brought to Rome by the Allies in WWII. Whatever its history, one thing everyone agrees on is that real Roman carbonara is absolutely delicious!
Amatriciana
For those who prefer a tomato-based sauce, amatriciana is a must-try. Originally created two centuries ago in the town of Amatrice on the border with the Abruzzo region in northeast Lazio, amatriciana has earned its place as one of Rome’s traditional pasta dishes.
The recipe uses guanciale cooked with tomatoes, a hint of red chili, and pecorino romano cheese, perfectly balanced to give a salty hit from the guanciale, the sweetness of tomatoes, a kick from the chili, and creaminess from the grated pecorino. While the people of Amatrice rigorously insist on serving the sauce with spaghetti, the Roman way to eat it is with bucatini—a type of thick spaghetti with a hole running through it—or occasionally rigatoni.
Cacio e Pepe
No recipe demonstrates the beautiful simplicity of Italian food quite like cacio e pepe. A celebration of local pecorino romano cheese (historically known as cacio), it is nothing more than a mixture of grated pecorino and freshly cracked black pepper teased into a sauce with starchy pasta water and plenty of stirring. The result is strands of perfectly al dente pasta woven through a silky, creamy cheese sauce that leaves a warm, peppery punch at the back of your throat. Just two ingredients and a little magic create this sumptuously satisfying sauce that can be prepared in the few minutes it takes to boil the pasta.
The origins of cacio e pepe come from the shepherds in the Roman countryside who camped along with their sheep during the spring, taking with them their non-perishable aged sheep cheese and dried homemade pasta to create a quick, substantial, and nourishing meal. From these humble, peasant beginnings, we now have one of the most treasured dishes of Roman cuisine.
Gricia
Many visitors to Rome have never heard of pasta alla gricia, but it actually forms the fundamental root of the other three. Championing the winning pair of pecorino and guanciale, it is also known as amatriciana bianca (white amatriciana) and is considered the ancestor of today’s more common pasta all’amatriciana, which includes the addition of tomatoes. The use of local ingredients is the core of Italian regional cuisine, and the pastures of Lazio have long produced sheep milk cheeses and cured pork products that are cheap, plentiful, and long-lasting. Gricia, which is most likely served with spaghetti or rigatoni, balances these two products faultlessly, with a requisite Roman crack of black pepper, using pasta water to combine the ingredients into a luscious creamy sauce laced with the mouthwatering savory flavor of the fatty guanciale.
As with amatriciana, the name is a reference to the birthplace of the dish, in this case, the town of Grisciano near Amatrice. Originally known as pasta alla griscia, the name eventually became gricia.
Discover more about these incredible recipes on our 4 Roman Pastas Tasting Tasting Experience in Rome. You’ll taste the individual ingredients and then see the end result by trying all four pasta dishes at an authentic Roman restaurant.
Or join our 4 Roman Pastas Cooking Class and master the art of making them all to perfection!
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