A peek behind the Cooking Curtain

I love to cook, everyone that reads this little blog knows that. And I search the web all the time for recipes.
Recipezaar is one place where I get alot of good ideas. There are thousands of recipes there, including ones that you can cook camping, not that I am going to go camping anytime soon. Also, Dragon's Kitchen is great for some original recipes, including her famous Sausage and Potato Gnocchi.

I also wander over to Bleeding Espresso on Wednesdays. She is an American living in Italy and while I often have to convert her recipes from the metric system so I can make them, they are always so freaking tasty. I figured I would share what we will be enjoying tonight, so you will know what I am doing at 7 pm. I am hoping Sognatrice does not mind that I am sharing, but it is also getting her recipes more notice, which is a good thing, no?

Pasta all'Amatriciana

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
100 grams pancetta arrotolata,
unrolled and cut into bite-sized chunks
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
1 can peeled tomatoes
500 grams penne pasta
water and salt to boil pasta
grated pecorino romano cheese to garnish

First put on the water to boil for the pasta, and then chop all your ingredients as described above.

Put olive oil in skillet and heat on medium. Add pancetta, and let cook for about five minutes, until the pancetta renders its fat. I know, yum, right?

Then add the onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and parsley and let cook for another minute or so.

At this point, your water should be boiling, and you can add salt and the pasta to the water (or do this whenever your water *is* boiling after this point).

Now add the tomatoes to the skillet. You can run them through a grinder or roughly chop them first depending on how you like them. You can also add some of the pasta water to thin out the sauce a bit; I usually use about 1/4 cup.

Let the sauce simmer for about 1o minutes or until the tomatoes taste done to you. You can add salt, but do so sparingly because the pancetta is salty and you've also added salted pasta water.

When the pasta is just short of al dente, remove, strain, and combine well with the completely cooked sauce, still over medium heat.

Once the pasta has absorbed some of the sauce and become fully al dente, remove and serve immediately. Garnish with grated pecorino romano cheese.

A note: Don't worry if your timing isn't exact the first time you make this--it'll get easier the more you make it, which is only more incentive to keep pancetta in your fridge.