Spaghetti alla Gricia
Several years back, I attempted a campaign to make gricia a household name. I like carbonara and everything, but it hardly deserves the entire Roman pasta spotlight. My efforts were a spectacular failure. I can’t even get people to say it right: GREE-chah. Like all great Roman pastas, gricia depends on technique rather than elaborate ingredients. The guanciale must be cooked just right—rendered enough to impart its fat to the sauce without withering away. The Pecorino Romano, ideally sourced from the countryside around Rome (Fulvi is my choice), should be grated fine enough to melt seamlessly into the starchy pasta water, forming a glossy sauce that clings to every piece of rigatoni, inside and out. Black pepper, cracked fresh, should be applied with a generous hand, reinforcing the dish’s bold, unembellished character. In an era where even classic Roman trattorie feel the pressure to modernize, gricia remains a relic of a time when food was defined by its ingredients rather than its Instagram potential.
6 ingredients
Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 20 mins
Spaghetti alla Gricia
Ingredients (6)
Ingredients (6)
Instructions
Heat the guanciale (8 oz) in a large pan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
While the guanciale cooks, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil over high heat.
Add salt until the water tastes like a seasoned soup. Add the pasta (1 lb) and cook until very al dente.
Add 0.5 cup of the pasta cooking water to the pan with the cooled guanciale. Use tongs to transfer the pasta to the pan and set it over high heat. Cook, mixing vigorously, until the pasta is al dente. Add more pasta cooking water (½ cup) as needed to keep the sauce silky and not dry.
Remove from the heat and stir in the pepper (1 ½ tsp) and 0.75 cup of the Pecorino Romano. Serve immediately with the remaining Pecorino Romano and additional pepper freshly ground on top.
Notes
Notes
Mezze Maniche alla Gricia con Zucchine
Half Rigatoni with Guanciale, Pecorino Romano, Black Pepper and Zucchini
This is classic gricia with a zucchini boost—a practical way I use up the summer surplus from my garden.
The base stays true: guanciale, Pecorino Romano, and black pepper bound by starchy pasta water. The zucchini adds a soft, vegetal note that lightens the dish without changing its character. But don’t confuse this twist with gricia di zucchine, a vegetarian version that swaps in zucchini for guanciale. That’s a different dish entirely...good, maybe, but not gricia. Follow the recipe above, swapping spaghetti for 1 pound of mezze maniche or rigatoni. While the pasta cooks, cook 0.75 cup of grated zucchini in the rendered guanciale fat over medium heat, just until tender, about 3 minutes. Then continue as directed: Finish the pasta in the pan with a splash of starchy water, then toss off the heat with Pecorino and pepper to form a creamy emulsion.
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