Pasta alla gricia is one of the classics of Roman cuisine, together with cacio e pepe and pastasciutta all’amatriciana. In fact it is considered as the ancestor of the same Amatriciana, precisely because the two recipes have the same preparation and the same ingredients at the base, the only difference is the addition / absence of tomato in the preparation. However, there are several hypotheses on the origin of the name, in fact, there are those who attribute it to Gricio, the dealer of bread and other foodstuffs; but the most supported theory is the one that attributes the birth of gricia in a town near Amatrice, a town in the province of Rieti, located on a border between Lazio and Abruzzo. La Gricia, as well as other typical dishes, was mainly consumed by shepherds who went to pastures with lard, dry pasta, bacon, pepper and pecorino. The peculiarity is the richness of the few elements, although rich in taste, to create a truly delicious first course. Let’s see how to prepare it together.

Preparation

1

First we put the pot with water on the stove. It will take the cooking time of the pasta to create the gricia.

2

In the meantime that the water reaches its boil, cut the bacon into strips and brown it with a drizzle of oil in a pan. We also add some black pepper. As soon as it is well browned, close the flame.

3

When the water boils, we go up and pour the pasta. When there are 2 minutes left to cooking (al dente), transfer the pasta to the pan where we browned the bacon and finish cooking it by adding a ladle of cooking water. When our pasta is well cooked, turn off the stove and add the pecorino as we add it in order to create a dense and tasty creamy mouth-watering cream. I recommend, the pasta should be creamed with the stove off.

4

We serve our Gricia half sleeves with a sprinkling of pecorino cheese and black pepper.

Note

The peculiarity of this first course is the cream of pecorino that is formed by whipping the pasta, for those who cannot resist the temptation, it is a must to make the scarpetta with the remaining sauce. As an alternative to half sleeves, you can also use long types of pasta, if you prefer, such as tonnarelli, typical of the Roman tradition.