Getting to bottom of another fine cured meat from Italy, I mean Umbria or er, Laszio...
Uh oh. It seems some Italian food authorities have decided to settle the debate about what the definitive version of Pasta all'Amatriciana is. Lots of luck. If you have a chance to watch Jamie Oliver, the Naked Chef, in his travels through Italy, you know that each village has its own passel of Nonna's each proclaiming her version of fill-in-the-blank is the correct version of the dish.
Why would this dish be any different?
My husband and I said a fitting farewell to the year of the pig with two porcine prizes: Jamon Iberico and Guanciale. More about Jamon later, but for now, we're in Italy. Central Italy. I began to look around. First, I found I was misspelling guanciale adding an “i' where it didn't belong (Guaniciale) and my husband made it sound like the WWII Solomon Islands war zone (Guadalcanal.)
Right. Okay, get the spelling right and the research goes much more smoothly. Still, I was relieved to discover that I am not alone in the debate about authentic Amatriciana sauce. Remember that Italy was formed of independent states and principalities that were occupied or traversed by so many cultures and armies. Even today, one would not hear an Italian say he is “Italian” as often as you would hear him say he was “Tuscan” or “Calabresi” or “Venetian”.
The food of Italy represents both the influences of other cultures as well as the diversity of the land. Both these vary region by region. So it is with a dish like Amatriciana. Some claim it origniates in Rome, others say it is Umbrian in origin. Some say garlic and onions, others say no garlic. What they all start with is guanciale.
