Oretta Zanini De Vita

Once thedoughis made, these hand-shapedspaghettoni(thick spaghetti) require no special skills, and so are excellent for beginners—though patience helps. The namepiciis associated with southern Tuscany, but the simple shape is known by many names, including "earthworms,"lombrichelliandombrichelli, in Umbria. It's a quick, simple pasta to make, and as a result can be found in varying lengths and thicknesses, as well as with different names. "Strozzapreti" is a popular favorite as names go because it means "priest stranglers," the origin of which is variously explained. Most probably it comes from the underground humor in the former Papal States, in which gluttonous priests were seen as the unwelcome minions of an oppressive ecclesiastical regime.Strozzapreti, unlike names like "earthworms," which actually suggest a shape, contains no inherent information about what the pasta looks like, and indeed the name is used throughout central and southern Italy for a number of shapes. To simplify things, think ofstrozzapretias essentially the same as pici, but shorter, any length you like.

Whole-wheat flour may be used if desired.

This simple but delicious sauce is named for the town of Amatrice, in the mountainous northeastern panhandle of Lazio, near Abruzzo and the Marche. It seems incredible for such an easy, humble sauce, but this is one of the dishes self-appointed purists (read fanatics) will fight over to the death, or at least death by boredom. You have to use spaghetti orbucatini, they say—nor is it that simple, since there are spaghetti-only andbucatini-only factions. No cheese but pecorino is permitted. And woe betide you if you use pancetta in place ofguanciale. There is, however, some room for individual expression. Some cooks use onion and chile, some not. A few swear by a splash of white wine "to cut the fat." The pecorino should ideally be that made in Amatrice or Abruzzo or Sicily, milder and fattier than pecorino romano, but pecorino romano is certainly what you'll find used in Rome. (Pecorino romano is a kind of cheese from a large designated area that includes the entire Lazio and Sardegna regions and the province of Grosseto in Tuscany, not just Rome; it is widely available in the United States.) Parmigiano is not used inamatriciana; it's made with cow's milk, and Rome and its mountainous hinterland is traditionally a land of sheep, after all. The shepherds of yesteryear, who spent months in the hills with their flocks, would make this flavorful dish for themselves. You can imagine that they were not worried about someone calling the food police if they grabbed a piece of pancetta instead ofguancialeor one kind of sheep cheese instead of another. But they would never have used smoked bacon, which is not part of their tradition. Like many rustic, simple sauces that have found immortality on trattoria menus throughout Italy (and beyond), this dish is only as good as its ingredients. Take the tomatoes. The rugged mountainous area of northeastern Lazio where Amatrice is located was never great tomato-growing territory, or at least not for most of the year, so it was normal to use canned or jarred tomatoes. But the most deliciousamatriciana我曾尝过是由Oretta(当然)her house about halfway between Rome and Amatrice with tomatoes from her garden. After her ecstatic guests had practically licked their plates, she announced with an air of regret that this delicious dish was "not reallyl'amatriciana" because she had used fresh tomatoes. She later revised the statement to the more reasonable pronouncement that if you have a basketful of gorgeous San Marzano tomatoes from your garden,of courseyou should peel and seed them and make the sauce, and handed me a jar of her home-canned tomatoes to use in the winter. Whether you use fresh or canned, the result is a red sauce studded with bits of lightly fried pork, but you don't want ittoored. The pasta andguancialeshould be coated with a thin mantle of sauce, not hidden. Don't let the gloppy, oversauced trattoria version be your model. The cheese is sharp and salty, but, again, don't use too much. Many people consider onion a deviation from the sacred original, but hardly anyone thinks it doesn't taste good. In fact, it is delicious. If you use it, add a small chopped onion to theguancialefat and sauté until transparent, then add the tomato.

One whiff of this hearty, fragrant sauce bubbling on your stove and you'll think you've just parachuted into the Apennines right in front of a trattoria, in sheep country. The mountains of central Italy—notably in the Abruzzo and Molise regions—have always been populated by shepherds. Consequently, lamb is the basic meat, and the cheeses are made from sheep's milk. Shoulder would be our cut of choice, but really any lamb stew meat will do. Even though the recipe calls for boneless meat, if you have some lamb on the bone, throw it in. The bones will add flavor and will be easy to remove once the sauce is cooked. Lamb is fatty, so the sauce will benefit from overnight chilling and subsequent degreasing. But if you can't bear to throw away that yummy lamb fat, roast some potatoes Italian style—cut up in small pieces with lots of rosemary—and use the lamb fat instead of olive oil.

The besttagliatellemade in Bologna, as by Oretta's mentor, the legendary Sister Attilia, are transparent. In southern Italy, thesfogliais a bit thicker, but the pasta is just as good.

Use the best, freshest eggs you can find, and don't even think of making this dish with eggs from stressed-out battery chickens. You can taste the difference. If you can find real guanciale, so much the better. Once the eggs have been added to the pasta, do not let the pan touch the heat directly or you will wind up with scrambled eggs.

As important as it is to develop feel and instinct when making dough, there is a metric formula for making pasta all'uovo. For every 100 grams of flour, use 1 (50- to 55-gram) egg, which corresponds to 1 USDA medium egg.