Amatriciana and Arrabiata.
Two tomato-based pastas beginning with “A“–and until now I never bothered to find out the difference.
As far as I can gather (my Italian friends might put me right on this) arrabiata is vegetarian and amatriciana is made with pork–but both are fired up with chili–as much or as little heat as you like.
Last night for a Birthday Pasta I made amatriciana with wholewheat penne.
(We always eat wholewheat pasta. Its lower glycemic index makes it healthier–which matters for people with diabetes–and Meredith and I prefer it now. That said, I limit myself to pasta once a week.)
Our friends, Keith and Helen, sent a birthday present of some bold and beautiful Tuscan red wine and it went down a treat with this robust sauce.
It takes its name from the town of Amatrice,
in the east of the region of Lazio (Rome’s region) close to the border of Abruzzo and Marche to its north.
for 4
350 grms wholewheat penne
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion–chopped small
2 garlic cloves–chopped small
2 oz/50 grms pancetta or bacon–chopped small
2 small dry red chilis–seeds removed and chopped
2 teaspoons rosemary needles–chopped small
2 tblspoons red wine
1 14-oz can/tin of tomatoes–chopped and drained but retaining 3 tablespoons of its juice
salt and pepper
- Heat the oil in a sauté pan large enough to contain the cooked pasta at the end.
- Gently brown the onion, bacon and garlic.
- Take time to get a nice sticky, slightly caramelised result (but not burnt!).
- Stir in the chili and rosemary and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add the wine and let it bubble a moment to burn off the alcohol.
- Add the tomatoes and extra juice and mix everything together thoroughly.
- Cook this for about 20 minutes to achieve the unctious sauce in the photo at the top.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil a large saucepan of cold water with a teaspoon of salt.
- Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook to your taste.
- Drain the pasta thoroughly and add to the sauce; turn it well in and heat through.
- Serve hot in warmed bowls with parmesan cheese to grate and red wine with a bit of attitude!
Portion control is the only challenge!
Robin Ellis 
Belated birthday wishes for a healthy and happy year!
Sheila
Yum! Cannot wait to try this! My son at 27 was diagnosed with diabetes and since then, whole wheat pasta is the norm. 4 years later it still is!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Robin. It looks tasty! (Thanks for the reminder to use whole wheat pasta.) Linda
Your stuff is explained so well and simply, you make me realize that I can cook well too. I realize I maybe the only non-foodie ( former non-foodie) responding to your blog. I have always eaten pretty well. I live in a city that gives me amazing food potions…but I never really took the time to cook for myself because honestly I never needed to. Working 60 to 80 hour weeks doesn’t really get you excited to go in the kitchen and cook up a storm.
And the past five years have been hard on my typically very positive heart and mind and strong body. 18 surgeries over three years on my left kidney alone (I have a complicated duplicate kidney system. Was supposed to be a twin and it never happened.)..and spent two years after that with the disillusionment and shock of long term unemployment.There is a happy ending to all this – I finally found rewarding work with terrific bosses and a company that is thriving in these crazy times. My left kidney is also healing quite well, much to the pleasant surprise of my brilliant doctors.
The biggest blessing all those surgeries gave me is it made me very intune with my body. I knew when I needed to give it time to flush out the toxins of all my anesthesia and painkillers and I always instinctively went to the nutrients my body craved. I am very aware of how I feel after I eat…After one of my surgeries I was not allowed any food or water for five full days…and believe me, simple broth never felt so welcoming. To this day, I am still a fan of simple broth.
And it’s great that I made it all through that…and now am ready to be good to myself again…and I think cooking for oneself is one of the best daily ways one can do that…and here you are with your amazing blog that isn’t stuffy at all – like some food blogs can be. It’s friendly, approachable and makes food prep look enjoyable and totally lovely. So I really want to thank you for that.
Stefanie, NYC
Ooops, didn’t mean..”potions” that’s a bit too Harry Potter for my liking, I meant…”options!”
Robin, I love your recipe of Amatriciana and I done the same. I use wholewheat pasta too because my hubby has high level of colhesterol and is the best if we want eat pasta. I don’t use rosmary: I think that in the original recipe never used rosmary, but I will put it: I adore rosmary. There was in Italy a famous and adorable actor whose name was Aldo Fabrizi. He was famous for her role in “Roma città aperta ” with Anna Magnani, for many caracters in movies with Totò and movies by Vittorio de Sica. He was a great and fantastic cook and find many old recipes from his family on ancient Lazio. I remember in his book that he made Amatriciana without garlic and rosmary. He use, instead of “pancetta”,”guanciale”. Guanciale is the cheek of the cow and the his recipe concer in onion, oil, guanciale, tomato, salt (very few), red wine and chilly. I have done Amatriciana with guanciale and its very delicious. Its very difficult find guanciale and you must go in a very furnish grocery;in S.Lorenzo’s market its easy to find. Some years ago I and hubby was so lucky to eat in Aldo Fabrizi’s restaurant in Rome who he founded with his sister. The restaurant is “Sora Lella” and the manager is the son of Lella. The tipycal food is “roman-jewish”: fantastic! If you are interest can find many things on internet of course. Jewish’s cooking is easy to cook, heavy and very tasting. Have a great afternoon!!!
Beatrice–fantastic tales thank you! Pecorino not easy to find here but I’m searching.
So much better to fight WARS over how to make amatriciana!!
I forget to tell you that….. there are a “War of Roses”…. ;)) between Lazio, Abruzzo and Molise’s cheefs. Everyone declaire that Amatriciana borned in own region-district. In Lazio is with tomatoes and all the rest, in Abruzzo Without, tometoes NO Tomatoes they declaire: Abosolutely. in Molise is with Ricotta salata’s cheese and not with Pecorino Roamno’s ch. Oh my God: I adore every type of Amatriciana ;)))
p.s. just last Sunday we was at parent’s home for luch and mummy done Amatriciana. Both mummy and daddy have their “war”: daddy prefer and prepare Am. with guanciale -but he do the slice to much small ;(( – and few tomato, mummy prepare with pancetta, big slices, tomato, all the rest and White Wine. More gentle…. and the winner was Mummy ;))
One note: not used Parmigiano, but in both case Pecorino Romano’s cheese: this is the best and the original…. improve and enjoy ;))
We are fortunate enough to have a family-owned Italian restaurant in our small town that offers unique cuisine, and arrabiata on its menu. They add heavy cream to the sauce (not good for us over-60 crowd, I know) but it is so-o-o-o good! I allow myself to indulge on a quarterly basis.