Name: Amatriciana Review by Yehanoha at Pastificio Guerra, Roma RM, Italy (2026) | BiteCritic
Item: Amatriciana
Rating: 4.2
Author: Yehanoha

Italy

Amatrice sits in the mountains of Rieti province, and the sauce named after the town is guanciale, tomato, pecorino and chilli. The municipal recipe, given a local designation in 2015, is explicit about the omissions: no onion, no garlic. Amatriciana is the middle term in Rome's sequence of four sauces. Cacio e pepe plus guanciale gives gricia; gricia plus tomato gives amatriciana; gricia plus egg gives carbonara instead. The tomato arrived last, some time in the late eighteenth century, which makes this the youngest of the four despite being the one most people assume is oldest. Rome serves it on bucatini, Amatrice on spaghetti, and both sides consider the other slightly wrong.

Render the guanciale in a dry pan over moderate heat until the fat runs and the meat colours, then lift the pieces out and set them aside. This is the step that separates a good plate from a mediocre one: guanciale left to simmer in tomato for ten minutes goes soft and loses the crackle that gives the dish its texture. Deglaze with a splash of dry white wine if you follow the Amatrice version, let it cook off, then add peeled tomatoes and a whole dried chilli to the rendered fat. Fifteen minutes over a low flame is enough; the sauce should tighten but stay loose enough to move. Return the guanciale at the very end, off the heat, and finish with grated pecorino so it melts rather than seizes.

The colour tells you a lot. A proper amatriciana is orange rather than red, because the pork fat has emulsified into the tomato instead of sitting on top of it. If there is a slick of orange oil pooling at the edge of the plate, the sauce broke. The guanciale should still resist the tooth. Pecorino romano is the standard outside Amatrice, where the local pecorino is milder and less salty, so a Roman version tastes sharper by design. Onion is the most common addition and the one worth deducting for, since it sweetens the sauce and blunts the pork. Cheese melted into a paste rather than dispersed usually means it went in over direct heat.

Amatriciana

Pastificio Guerra

Ustam her gün farklı makarna tipleriyle bir kova domuzlu bir kova sebzeli makarna ile şifa dağıtıyor. Lokal makarna dükkanı olarak düşünebilirsiniz, adamların asıl işi arkada makarna hamuruyla oynamak. Her iki makarna da cok güzeldi, fiyat çok uygun. Mutlaka gidilmeli.

Amatriciana review by Yehanoha at Pastificio Guerra, Roma RM, Italy

Amatriciana

Pastificio Guerra

Comments

Places Near Me

Global Feed

Find Foodies

Become a Partner