The Spaghetti Series - All'Amatriciana (#1)

Lets face it: Monday's are as bad as those leftovers sitting in the back of your fridge for over a week.

In order to brighten Mondays up a bit, I decided to create a weekly piece known as The Spaghetti Series. Each Monday I will post a new dish made with spaghetti for readers. It will be something simple, since Monday nights one is usually rather exhausted, but flavorful and fun to make.

Tonight I begin the series with a sauce called Amatriciana - a traditional Italian sauce based on dried pork cheek, pecorino, and tomato - from the town of Amatrice. There are many recipes out there with many variations, so I took the basics and then made it my own. It had a wonderful heat to it for a cold winter's night, and of course bacon is one of the ultimate comfort foods (in moderation, of course!).

Spaghetti All'Amatriciana

Ingredients

2 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes

4 pieces of unsmoked bacon, center cut

2 medium onions, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons fresh parsley

2 cups of dry white wine

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz of cooked spaghetti

grated pecorino romano

Directions

- In a heavy saucepan, cook bacon until its well done and crispy. Remove and drain. Crumble.

- Pour off all but one tablespoon of bacon goodness and place pot back on low heat

- Add garlic and stir, 1 minute

- Add onions and stir, scraping up the nice brown bits, 5 minutes

- Add 1 cup of white wine (the 2nd cup is yours to drink), red pepper, marjoram, oregano, and parsley and let reduce (about 5 minutes)

- Add tomatoes and let simmer for 30 minutes

- Working in batches, puree the sauce in a blender

- Return to pot and let simmer for another 30 minutes

- Serve over spaghetti and top with grated romano cheese and some crumbled bacon.