Pizza Amatriciana, with Pecorino and Guanciale

Pizza Amatriciana, with Pecorino and Guanciale. If you love the pasta with the Amatriciana sauce, then this pizza is going to knock your socks off. A light, thin, crispy crust, hosting a rich, bold, tomato sauce and lovely morsels of guanciale. It is not Amatriciana without some Pecorino, and to seal the deal, nice pools of luxurious mozzarella! Are you on team Pizza Amatriciana now?

Song of the day: "Baila (Sexy Thing)" by Zucchero

Why does something this good have to only be for pasta?

I am a creative person, however, I truly have come to understand and respect Italian cuisine. The Amatriciana is a recipe dear and close to my heart as it always brings me memories of me and my wife and how much we love Rome. This sauce is a Roman classic and the other day I was thinking about how good this sauce was with homemade gnocchi and how wonderful it would be on homemade pizza. Hence that is what I did.

Today I am excited to share this Italian beauty with all of you. So, without further ado, let's get into the kitchen and make this Pizza Amatriciana, with Pecorino and Guanciale.

What you will need from the kitchen for this Pizza Amatriciana

Truly, this is going to be easy, as it demands very little for equipment. Here is what we need:

• Some bowls for our ingredients and tomatoes
• Medium sauté pan
• Slotted spoon
• Paper towel
• Wooden spoon
• Pizza peel
• Spatula
• Good knife for slicing
• Pizza cutter
• Cutting board
• Cheese grater
• Glass for some wine

Ingredients

We have not said this enough. Nicoletta and I truly believe that, when getting your ingredients, buy good quality, and if you can, products made in Italy. Here are the ingredients:

For the dough:

• Italian type "00" flour
• Dry active yeast
• Room temperature water
• Salt
• Pinch of sugar (optional)
• Extra virgin cold pressed olive oil

The sauce:

• San Marzano tomatoes, hand-crushed or puréed
• Guanciale (Italian cured meat product prepared from pork jowl or cheeks - Wikipedia)
• White wine
• Peperoncino (red chili flakes), optional

The pizza toppings:

• Fresh mozzarella
• Pecorino Romano, grated
• Crispy fried guanciale

Homemade dough is the way to go

I know many are afraid of making their own pizza dough. However, I am going to take that fear away today and show you just how easy it is. We have a full proof recipe for pizza dough, check it out.

If you are still leary about making the dough, store bought would work, too, just let it proof a bit so it will be easy to stretch.

Let's make the sauce for this Pizza Amatriciana, with Pecorino and Guanciale

This is a super easy sauce we need to do some prep first so time to get to it:

• Take your guanciale and cut it into thick slices. Cut the outer spiced layer off and discard.
• Now cut the slice into slivers and place in a ramekin.
• Heat up a medium saute pan to a medium to high heat. Throw in the slivered guanciale and sauté continuously moving it around the pan so it does not burn.
• Once it is crispy and a nice brown color, take out of pan with a slotted spoon and place in a paper towel lined ramekin.

• Turn heat down on the pan you used to do the guanciale. Take some of the rendering fat that came off the guanciale out. Now pour in the white wine and use a wooden spoon to stir the wine and oils from the guanciale. Let that evaporate for a bit until the alcohol is cooked out.

• Pour in the crushed tomatoes and give it a good stir. Let that simmer for about 10 minutes.

• Then toss in half of the crispy guanciale and let that cook for another 10 minutes. The guanciale is salty, and so is the Pecorino that you are going to add later. Taste the sauce and if it needs salt, add very little, and stir again.
• Turn sauce off and set aside to cool.

Stretching the dough

I love this part, working that dough ball into a nice thin round pizza. Here is how I do it:

• Take the dough out of the bowl and rotate it in your hands streching it into a large round.
• Take some semolina and dust the back side of a round 12 inch pizza pan. Place the dough on the pan and work it outward to the edges of the pan.
• Now slide it off and onto your pizza peel that you have dusted sparingly with semolina.
• You can also stretch it right in a pizza pan by oiling the pan lightly then placing the dough in the center and pressing and stretching it to the outer edges.

Pizza Amatriciana, time for the toppings

We have to work fast here, as the more the dough sits on the pizza peel the harder it is going to be to slide it off. Topping time:

• Pre-heat the oven to 425°F. Place baking steel or pizza stone on the middle rack.
• Take the sauce and spoon some in the middle. Spread the sauce out working from the center out and make sure to leave a bit of a border.
• Sprinkle a good amount of the finely grated Pecorino cheese throughout.

• Now for a few finishing touches. Cut the mozzarella into thin rounds. Place them on top of the sauce and Pecorino.
• Sprinkle the remaining crispy guanciale, and drizzle a bit of evo oil over the top.
• Give the pizza peel a little tap to loosen the dough and slide the pizza carefully onto your baking steel or pizza stone. Bake for 10 minutes turning the pizza 180 degrees halfway through.

This Pizza Amatriciana, with Pecorino and guanciale looks spectacular

I love how crispy the edges look and lifting the pizza up a bit gives me a look at the bottom and it is perfectly baked and has a beautiful color. I just want to finish the pizza with some freshly grated Pecorino, just because, lol.

Grab the pizza cutter and slice up this pie, so we can finally have a taste!

I am in love

Altogether, this is one beautiful pizza pie that truly delivers in flavor and texture. The crust is thin and crispy and has a beautiful subtle flavor. That sauce is the bomb with those morsels of guanciale inside, tender and so full of flavor, really elevating the sauce to no end.

The mozzarella and Pecorino are icing on the cake and after a few bites I am back in Rome and truly in love, not only with this pizza, but with Nicoletta who introduced me to this Roman classic sauce! Exquisite!

It has been truly a pleasure sharing this recipe with you. Thank you so much for cooking with me. You are definitely going to wow whomever you share this pizza with!

Enjoy!

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