Begin by freezing the guanciale (or pancetta or bacon) for about 30-45 minutes. This step prevents the fat from melting in your hands and enables you to slice the meat thinly and evenly.
Cut the rind off the guanciale. (Do the same if there’s a hard rind on the pancetta.) We like to slice our guanciale about a 1/4″ thick.
Lay the guanciale flat in a cool 12″ frying pan. Turn the heat to medium high. Cook the guanciale until it just browns on the edges and the fat begins to render. Turn the heat to the lowest setting.
Keep an eye on the pan and remove the pan from the heat if you feel that the meat is close to burning.
To begin the pasta, boil about 5 cups of water in a saucepan large enough to fit the pasta.
Important Note
While many recipes call for boiling the pasta in a large amount of water, we use less water for two reasons. First, a smaller amount of water takes less time to recover to a full boil once the pasta is added. Second, the density of starch is greater with less water, which creates a sort of loose slurry that thickens the sauce.
When using a long strand pasta like linguine or spaghetti, it may be easiest to use a 12″ sauté pan to boil the pasta. If, like us, you use a large sauce pan, you’ll still need to bend the long stranded pasta to submerge it all in a small diameter pan in a small amount of boiling water.
Either way, we prefer pans with long handles (like our All-Clad pictured here) since they make it easier to use tongs to remove the pasta from the pasta cooking water
About 3 minutes before removing the pasta from the pan, turn the heat on the pan with the guanciale to medium high. About 30 seconds before your pasta is ready, pour about 3 to 4 ladlefuls of pasta water into your pan. The starchy pasta water will not only help create the pasta sauce but it will also deglaze the pan, liberating any flavorful fond formed on the bottom of the pan by the pork.
Once the spaghetti is cooked to just al dente (you can taste to check), use tongs to transfer the pasta to the pan for finishing.
If you choose to use a colander instead, you can move about 1 cup of the cooked pasta water to a heatproof measuring cup before draining your pasta. Though you may not need the water, it’s good to have some in reserve in case the sauce gets too thick.
Once the guanciale is in the pasta pan, mix the pasta, the pasta water and the guanciale. Add more pasta water as need to make a viscous sauce. (We typically use about 1 1/2 cups of the pasta water.)
Remove the pan from the heat. Add the Pecorino Romano and stir with the pasta.
The sauce should be white and creamy. Grind in fresh black pepper to taste. You can optionally grate more Pecorino Romano when serving.
