Sugo all'amatriciana

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Sugo all'amatriciana is an Italian pasta sauce prepared with guanciale or pancetta, red chili peppers and tomatoes. The dish is named after the town of Amatrice in northern Lazio, whence it originates. It is also a specialty of Rome, where it is prepared with red pepper and onions as well.

It is thought to be derived from a dish named pasta alla gricia, made with pasta and a sauce made of guanciale and pieces of sausages sautéed with olive oil, seasoned with freshly ground black pepper, and served mixed with Pecorino Romano cheese. It is popular in all Central Italy but also identified with Rome. It was Amatrice where tomato was added to gricia (while the sausages were eliminated) and the sauce was formed (the restaurants in Amatrice still propose "Amatriciana bianca" and "rossa", that is, without or with tomatoes).

There are many varieties of sugo all'amatriciana. In Amatrice, it is prepared without onions, which is not typical of standard recipes from outside the area. On the other hand, some may prefer to add garlic or white wine, or replace black pepper with red pepper, though such practices are not accepted by purists. However, everyone agrees that cream should be avoided.^{[citation needed]}

The preferred type of pasta for this sauce elsewhere in Italy is not spaghetti, as common in Amatrice, but bucatini (also known as perciatelli) (though the recipe in Il cucchiaio d'argento does use spaghetti). In Rome amatriciana sauce is also often served with rigatoni. It is mixed in a serving bowl with the pasta, and then grated Pecorino Romano is added and tossed thoroughly.

Sometimes the dish is referred to as bucatini alla matriciana; this could be a mistaken derivative of "all'Amatriciana". In fact, the absence of the initial “a” is characteristic of colloquial clipping of initial vowels in the Roman dialect Romanesco.