Why AMATRICIANA is the KING of the 4 Roman Pastas 

Same I learned all my pasta techniques from those old videos

Real ones know about the cutting board

Yep - Love both channels and couldn't agree more - we can always do better but some people don't have access to everything, so even if it wasn't SUPER perfectly traditional, it was LEGIT!

He was probably going to mention “anti-caking agents” lol @ 4:17

True

Bacon is so different you’re cooking another dish at that point

@@elliotowens8939 There are many sorts of bacon, even some, that are made like pancetta ... dry cured and not or only lightly smoked. Bacon is not necessarily the watery, oversalted factory-stuff from Walmart. Take your time and listen to the passta grannies ... when they were young, they often were poor and very rarely had the fancy ingedients, that this so called food experts call for. They were glad to have cheese or some klind of pork at all and did not care, what kind it was exactly. If i.e. somebody says, that you can only make carbonara, if you have guanciale and pancetta is not working, because it's not the real deal ... i guess those people have completely lost connection to reality.

As an Italian, born and raised in nothern Italy, who worked as a butcher, in a butchery shop that sold salumi as well... i can tell you that the "guanciale only" thing started around 10 years ago even in our country, before then most people in the nothern part of Italy made carbonara using pancetta, because that's what was available, you couldn't even find guanciale. Growing up, my mom used to make carbonara with pancetta, everyone used pancetta. So.... yeah, i agree that by using pancetta/bacon completely changes the flavour, it does, even tho guanciale is still a fatty cut of pork just like pancetta, it has a completely different flavour. But i hate that we get pissed for that, cause at the end of the day, even by using pancetta or bacon you can still make a decent "carbonara", i personally think it's all good as long as you don't add the notorius "italian-american bs" such as cream, chives, parsley or garlic. Just live and let live...

Because pancetta and bacon are way cheaper and readily available.

This 100%. The older videos were my #1 resource when I went the my Roman pasta phase and I'm so glad I found the channel though them.

I prefer pancetta but you can get guanciale at Ivarone brothers if that's near you.

@@bakerteacher2905worked at a Italian restaurant in Philadelphia almost 20 years ago and they only had pancetta. I’ve never had it with guanciale cause I ain’t paying that much money for it. Everything doesn’t have to be authentic to be good.

I use the lightly cured pork jowl bacon from our local groceries. May not taste exactly correct, because I suspect they use some sugar in the cure, but only a Roman would know the difference. Another option is to get fresh pork cheeks from a butcher and salt cure them yourself in the fridge. Not hard, just takes some time.

@@timolean5846Absolutely! And didn’t I hear Stephen say (more than once) “this isn’t about authenticity- this is Italian-American!” And authentic Italians were living in a different environment with different ingredients available and they made use of the bounty that was here in America. According to Lydia Bastianich, and she would know, having emigrated to America at the age of 12, meat of all kinds was more available to the newly arrived Italians, who were poor, they were peasants, they only had meat on Sundays (hence the birth of Sunday Gravy, born here in America). Italians made use of pork, one of the least expensive animal proteins world over, and they used the least expensive cuts, like guanciale, which is pork cheek, and almost entirely fat with slim ribbons of muscle meat. Now bc it’s “authentic, people seek it out and are willing to pay up to $39.99 for a hunk? I don’t think “real authentic “ Italians would agree with that - they’d find some other way, maybe American bacon or ham hocks. Why does it have to be authentic? What does that even mean? It’s more “authentic” to abide the philosophy of “use what you have,” and make gastronomic miracles with what you have. 😊 This was poor people’s food, and poor people’s food is the origin of all the best dishes and cuisines all over the world. Now the high end chefs try to re-create it in pricey Michelin star restaurants. Crazy!

You can buy pork back fat or thick cuts of bacon from many regular supermarket delis, which you can cut into the same size and shapes as what Stephen makes w/ guanciale. The only difference is that it is hickory smoked, which I think is an improvement. It’s more flavorful. And many Americans prefer it for the Smokey flavor. I know I do. But then, I’m not Italian.

Don't give up hope. I live in Georgia, but very close to the Alabama line, and I've got easy access to guanciale. If you're by chance around the Auburn area, it might be worth a trip.

Skål!

i want this grater too, anyone know where to get one?

@@gohabs9 I haven’t looked yet but when I find it I’ll let you know.

@@mnbsay9548 please let me know as well, please!!

Came on to say the same, hopefully it’s fixed soon. Can’t wait to try this dish

It's working for me, now.

Also for me and my price range de cecco pasta and mutti tomato sauce is fantastic

Nobody really eats fresh rigatoni or any other tubular pasta. Americans are fixated on thinking "fresh pasta" is always superior.

@@avonlave I generally prefer quality dried pastas, but there is a place near me that makes Rigatoni and it is quite good.

@@avonlave Dry pasta is also the better choice when you need that starchy pasta water for your disk, like cacio e pepe, carbonara, etc. Fresh pasta cooks too quickly to develop good starch in the pasta water. There are methods around this problem, but why do the extra effort when top quality dry pasta does the job perfectly.