Pasta alla Zozzona

Updated at: Sat, 25 Nov 2023 17:02:43 GMT

Step 1

First, dice the guanciale into large chunks. Once cooked and their fat is rendered this should shrink by about half. Slice the garlic and grate your cheese finely. Separate two egg yolks and add them to a large heat proof bowl.

Step 2

To the egg, add the fresh cracked black pepper and about 3/4 of pecorino Romano cheese and stir to combine to form a paste.

Step 3

On the stove, set up a medium sized pot with boiling salted water and next to that a large pan to make part of the sauce. Add the guanciale to the cold pan, then turn the heat on and cook the guanciale on medium heat. What we are looking to do at this stage is to render out a lot of the guanciale fat and brown the fat and the meat just like we would bacon. And just like with bacon, when we start to get close I like to pool the fat and the guanciale to one side of the pan to sort confit the meat in its own fat and help finish it to a nice golden brown and to allow all the pieces to get evenly browned. Once it’s nicely browned, fish out the crisp guanciale and pour out half the guanciale fat to allow it to cool before we add it to the carbonara mix.

Step 4

Get the pan back on medium high heat and add the sausage to the remaining guanciale fat and use a flat bottomed wooden spoon to bread up the sausage into smaller pieces and we’re looking for the same thing here, we want cook out any of the liquid in the sausage and then it will start to fry in the fat and brown. About 2 minutes before it's fully browned, toss in the sliced garlic and begin to toast those slices, season with a little salt and once they begin to brown around add in the tomato passata. Throw some water in the container to clean out the rest of the passata and add that to the sauce, season with a touch of salt and bring it up to a simmer.

Step 5

While that simmers, add the rigatoni to the salted water. The box says 12 minutes for al dente so I’m gonna set a timer for 10 minutes, 2 minutes earlier than the package instructs.

Step 6

While the pasta and the sauce cooks, add the cooled guanciale fat to the egg mixture and a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water and thin out the mixture to begin to temper it.

Step 7

Then after 10 minutes, fish out the pasta and add it directly to the sauce, stir it into the sauce and then we want to simmer it directly in the sauce for an additional 3-4 minutes as it cooks more slowly in the sauce than in boiling water. While that cooks, turn the heat off on the pasta water, place the bowl with the carbonara mix on top of the pasta water and then allow only the gentle steam to start to heat up the carbonara sauce and prepare everything to be combined with the hot pasta.

Step 8

Now once the pasta is coated in that sauce and is al dente and pour it all directly into the large bowl with the carbonara sauce and gently stir with a spatula to combine both sauces. If it's a little thick, you can add a touch of pasta water and once it all comes together and the sauce is clinging to the pasta and it kinda has a bit of a vodka sauce look to it, check for any last minute seasonings and then you’re ready to plate.

Step 9

In a warm shallow bowl, spoon in a nice mound of the pasta, then some of those nice crispy chunks of guanciale, then finally some more pecorino. This may be the first time you’ve made this pasta, but it won’t be the last.

Step 10

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