Pasta Amatriciana 

The bucatini shortage in America is real and has been documented. Reasons include pandemic shortages and the difficulty of making it. For what it's worth, Italians often prefer spaghetti with amatriciana because bucatini is difficult to eat without sending the tomato sauce flying. (It doesn't readily wrap around a fork like spaghetti.) So it makes a mess on your nice clothes, and here in Italy we care as much about our clothes as our pasta.

Great sauce, and it freezes well for future meals. I add a small, finely chopped onion when cooking the pancetta, as Marcela Hazan suggests, and it adds depth.

This is similar to the way I learned to make it from my Roman friend, but always remove/set aside the guanciale after it crisps and return it just before serving so it stays that crispy. Also I agree with Luca on limiting ingredients, but for me hot pepper is a must, and salt your pasta water till it tastes like the sea. I never needed to add pasta water to the sauce for this dish. Lastly, with a dish this simple, you must get the best tomatoes, cheese and pasta you can find.

When adding red pepper flakes in a sauce I always “toast” the pepper in the oil in the pan before adding liquids à la Lidia B. It flavors the sauce beautifully.

Holy [swearword]. My picky eating kid asked for seconds. I added shallots but I would add shallots to cereal so take that with a grain of salt.

I make a version of this for my family all the time - it's one of their favorites. I always, whether using guanciale or pancetta, crisp it up first and set it aside. I cook the onions in the rendered fat and add hot pepper flakes into the onion mixture to let the hot pepper bloom. Tomatoes go in next and I let it all cook down a bit. Right before serving I stir in grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino. I plate it and add a generous serving of the crispy guanciale or pancetta. So good!

I always use pancetta for this as guanciole is hard to come by in my small town. This dish happily accepts a finely chopped onion or shallot, a dollop of leftover wine or any number of small flavorings as long as you only add one; more than that and it changes rather than enhances. Thanks for the tip about toasting the pepper flakes.

I'm always amazed at how Italians take a few basic ingredients, prepare them in a simple way and create a dish that is stellar. Amatriciana is one of those dishes. This recipe from Kay Chun is spot on. Like BQW, I remove the guanciale after it crisps and add it back at the end so it doesn't just go limp and dissolve in the tomatoes. Lastly, despite someone's comment, amatriciana doesn't call for soffritto; tomatoes, guanciale and some pecorino and you're good to go!

With good guanciale you can definitely skip the olive oil. The fat from guanciale will be more than enough and will give the sauce its distinct flavor.

This is traditionally Smokey and spicy and if you can only find bacon, add a pinch of smoked paprika

I have cooked this sauce for decades, using variations on recipes by Ada Boni and the Romagnolis as inspirations, and find the addition of a chopped onion and a small amount of white wine works well. Yes, pancetta works just fine. I prefer bucatini which is traditional but penne rigate also work well and are often used in Rome. This is a very easy and forgiving dish, especially since I no longer over-sauce.

I haven't found bucatini either but I have found a square pasta that has the same texture as bucatini and a bit thicker than spaghetti. But I'm lucky in having an Italian market nearby. The last time I had amatriciana in a restaurant it was made with spaghetti. It was terrific. As was once said on another subject: "you don't go to war (pasta) with the army (ingredients) you want; you go with the army (pasta) you have." Good rule. At least for cooking.

Husband is Sicilian and grew up in an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn but neither of us had had Amatriciana until we moved from NY to SF in 1982 and enjoyed it in Italian eatery there. Ahhh...some to find it simple to make at home and the recipe is just as this one. We've found we prefer pancetta when quality guanciale is hard to find depending on city we live in. Since bucatini "slaps the face" to try to eat it, we sub spaghetti if serving others to protect their dignity and clothes. :-)

One of my go-to sauces. I like to add some garlic and a few torn basil leaves and I've also found that using a little more tomato than the 28 oz. can works nicely with the bucatini. Red pepper flakes are a must.

Tossed the pepper flakes in the oil before the tomatoes. Added a Parmesan rind from the freezer (NYTimes Cooking gem). Couldn’t put down my fork. So good, so fast, so easy!!