Here’s my quick and easy take on this yummy and flavourful pasta dish! I often use spaghetti, but you can use short pasta too, whatever you feel like (:
Turquoise Blog’s Under 30 Minutes Spicy all’Amatriciana Pasta Recipe
Recipe for: 2 portions
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
- Ingredients:
- 2 portions of spaghetti (or any other pasta)
- extra virgin olive oil
- 4 slices of spicy pancetta about 1cm thick, cut into small cubes (I like to buy pre-cubed pancetta, about 150g)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 bottle of strained tomatoes (roughly 700ml)
- 6 basil leaves, whole & fresh
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of Bomba Calabrese (spicy Calabrian/Italian pepper spread) OR 1 teaspoon of chili flakes
- Black pepper and salt, to taste
- Parmigiano reggiano cheese (topping)
- Chopped basil leaves (topping)

How to make my all’Amatriciana pasta:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and put a medium pot on high heat.
- When the medium pot is hot, lower down to medium heat and add in the diced pancetta. Cook until golden and crispy on the outside. Lower the heat to low and add in some olive oil, the onion and garlic. Cook until soft.
- Once your pancetta, onion and garlic mixture is soft, add in the container of strained tomatoes, basil leaves, sugar, hot Italian pepper spread, black pepper (to taste) and salt (to taste). Mix well and leave on low-medium heat, covered, for the next ten minutes.
- Once the water is boiling, add the pasta in. Cook until al dente (follow the instructions on the package) then drain and reserve the pasta.
- Once the pasta is cooked, put it back in the large pot and add all’Amatriciana sauce to it.
- Serve the pasta in two bowls and add some shaven parmigiano reggiano, more fresh basil and ground black pepper, and enjoy!
*All photos are my own