Authentic Pasta alla Gricia Recipe

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This Pasta alla Gricia recipe is one of the pillars of Roman pasta, along with: Spaghetti Carbonara, Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe and Amatriciana! With a creamy pecorino cheese sauce and fine Italian guanciale, you’ll love this dish! Check out the recipe card below. Or, download our cookbook where you can find this recipe and more!

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In Italiano? Pasta alla Gricia, Ricetta Originale

How to Make Spaghetti alla Gricia

Pasta alla Gricia, sometimes called White Amatriciana is a traditional Roman dish. This underrated Italian pasta dish featured a creamy pecorino romano sauce, black pepper and fine crispy guanciale. You definitely want to look for it in restaurants when you visit Rome!

Pasta alla Gricia is considered the child of Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe pasta and the parent of Amatriciana pasta. Adding the pecorino shredded at the end, or as a cheese sauce are both considered acceptable preparations of this traditional Italian pasta recipe!

Guanciale or Pancetta?

Guanciale is more traditional in this dish, but pancetta is ok too. Pancetta is cured pork belly, while guanciale is cured pork cheek. 

Preventing Clumpy Pecorino Cheese Sauce

Add the pecorino cheese paste off the heat to prevent a clumpy, stringy sauce

We prevent clumpy cheese sauce in three ways: using finely grated cheese, preparing the cheese paste carefully, and adding the cheese sauce to the pasta off the heat. 

It’s critical to use finely grated pecorino here. Freshly grated cheese is always tastier, but if you grate the cheese with a food processor, you may want to also pass it through a strainer to make it even finer. The finely grated cheese available in most groceries will be the perfect consistency. 

By slowly drizzling in the hot pasta water into the grated cheese, you should naturally keep the mixture above 140°F (60°C)—the temperature at which the cheese will coagulate. 

Finally, we add the cheese paste to the pasta off the heat. Once again, this is done to keep the temperature of the cheese below the point where it would start coagulating and creating clumps and strings. 

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Authentic Pasta alla Gricia Recipe

PIATTO RECIPES
This Pasta Gricia recipe is one of the pillars of Roman pasta, along with: Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe and Amatriciana! With a creamy pecorino cheese sauce and fine Italian guanciale, you'll love this dish!
4.99 from 181 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian, Mediterranean
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
 
 

  • 1 tbsp black pepper preferably freshly ground (medium coarse)
  • 6 oz pecorino romano cheese semi-aged
  • 6 oz guanciale or pancetta
  • ½ cup white wine
  • 11 oz spaghetti or tonnarelli

Instructions
 

Toast the Pepper

  • Briefly toast black pepper in a dry pan over low heat—just until you start to smell it. This shouldn’t take longer than a minute. Transfer the pepper to another container and set it aside.
  • For the best flavor, freshly grind the pepper using a medium-coarse setting. Medium coarse pepper is easier to toast without over-toasting—and creating pepper gas!

Fry the Guanciale

  • Cut the guanciale into thick slices, then into 1/2 inch strips. 
  • Fry the guanciale in a dry pan over medium-low heat until the fat turns translucent. Then raise the heat a bit to crisp up the outside of the pieces. As the guanciale fries…

Partially Cook the Pasta

  • Add the pasta to boiling water and cook it for 3/4 of the cook time recommended for ‘al dente’ pasta in the package instructions. 

De-Glaze the Pan

  • When the guanciale is fried to your liking, add the white wine to de-glaze the pan. This will give the dish an extra boost of flavor, and serve to pull all of the delicious guanciale grease off the bottom of the pan and into our final sauce

Finish Cooking the Pasta

  • Add the partially cooked pasta (drained) to the skillet with the guanciale. Add a few ladles of the hot pasta water as well—and save the pasta water as we will still need it!
  • Add the black pepper to the cooking pasta. Finish cooking the pasta in the pan for the rest of the cooking time. Add a ladle of water as needed to make sure the pasta has enough to finish cooking. In the meantime…

Make the Cheese Sauce

  • To the finely grated pecorino cheese, slowly drizzle in one ladle of hot pasta water—stirring continuously! Mix until you’ve created a smooth, creamy paste. 

Finish the Pasta

  • When the pasta is cooked, remove it from the heat. Add the cheese paste to the hot pasta and mix thoroughly using a pair of tongs. This is called the ‘mantecatura’ in Italian. Serve immediately and buon appetito!

Video

Notes

Why use semi-aged pecorino?
Semi-aged cheeses melt a bit easier, resulting in an even creamier sauce.
Keyword cheesy, meat lover, pasta
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
About the author

Classic recipes from Italy and beyond. Traditional Italian Cooking and Mediterranean Diet recipes!

PIATTO™ Recipes bring traditional Italian food recipes to your table with our tested, step-by-step recipes and videos. You'll find the best Italian recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Always tested, always delicious.

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255 thoughts on “Authentic Pasta alla Gricia Recipe”

  4. 5 stars
    Una ricetta FINALMENTE spiegata come si deve❗
    Sono un appassionato di cucina mediterranea e bramo le ricette semplici, veraci, quelle di una volta, insomma !
    E i tanto “decantati” chefs… quelli che, non sapendo più come proporre una vera/verace/tradizionale ricetta… la rivisitano continuamente.
    Con l’ovvia soddisfazione di chi non ha mai mangiato cose vere, cose che cucinava la nonna, ergo e che non capiscono un ..zzo!
    Ritornando alla ricetta suesposta, appare appetitosa di primo acchito!
    Ben spiegate le ovvie somiglianze con la più contadina “cacio e pepe” e la mondialmente blasonata carbonara !
    Carbonara purtroppo ORRIBILMENTE rovinata (specialmente dai tedeschi e ovviamente americani 🤮🤮🤮 che la propongono con pancetta affumicata e simili loro porcherie)…🤮🤮
    Detto ciò, apprezzo il modo semplice di spiegare il susseguirsi delle diverse fasi e le attenzioni riguardanti la temperatura dei diversi ingredienti 👍
    Unico neo del vid… i minuti da 2:58 fino a 4:10 sono praticamente inutili !
    Ripresa di lato che sconvolge e delude la vogliosa attenzione dello spettatore. Peccato !
    Cmq, thum-up per la genuinità del video 👍👍👍

    Reply

  5. 4 stars
    “Great upload and perfect recipe, only thing I change is rigatoni, the short fat version, instead of spaghetti. I love it when the guanciale goes inside the rigatoni. Btw, bacon is not a good translation for guanciale, everyone knows guanciale, but if you want an anglicised word, then please consider ‘cured pork cheek’, as bacon is something totally different, it from the pork belly and normally smoked or cured, yet never with the fat content or unique taste of pork cheek. In any cases one is my most favourite pasta. I thought my 7 and 8 year old daughters how to cook it a while back, meanwhile they do a better job than me and use much less white wine, no one for the pan then one for the cook with them. 😂

    You earned a new subscriber today bonissimo”

    Reply

  9. 4 stars
    I will look forward to trying that dish in Rome this fall!! I may attempt to make it myself this summer , while inspiring myself and hubby!
    I’ve made my own chicken parmigiana on spaghetti twice, with my own marina sauce- such great food!!! This looks more technical but yummy!

    Reply

    • Hi Kerry—Rome will be so much fun! Let us know how your attempt at making this dish turns out. Be sure to check out our other Roman recipes 🙂

      Reply

    • Hi Rebecca! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment 🙂 We get so few comments that aren’t spam :/….

      Reply

  13. 5 stars
    You need to warn people to have a bib or at least some paper towels ready before watching the video. My saliva glands are peaking off the chart 🌟

    Reply

  15. 5 stars
    As a Roman I can confirm that the ingredients and procedure are correct. I just want to add a few extra little tricks. Before cooking it, put the guanciale for ten seconds in boiling water, dry it and cook it as the video shows , so it will seal and remain even crunchier on the outside and soft on the inside. Then I leave a few pieces of quanciale for an extra minute, remove them and wait for them to dry, then I chop them into powder which I add during creaming.

    Reply

  16. 5 stars
    Thank you for the video! Just a personal side note of mine – I prefer cooking the guancale on high heat for short time straight away. Didnt know that the proportion is 1:1:1 pasta:guancale:cheese. Thats definitely tasty!

    Reply

  26. 5 stars
    There is no real substitute for Guanciale .. Once you have it you will never use other cured pork . you will make it your self make a curing chamber a aging chamber just for guanciale ….

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  36. 5 stars
    Hillbilly from the high desert close to Furnace Creek Springs, looks amazing. Here in the US, other than SOME American Italians and a FEW foodies-most have never even heard of Guanciale. Would Spam work?

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  39. 5 stars
    I had this dish once before WOW! I loved so much and I wouldn’t ever serve this dish or any other cheese dish any other way. To me it doesn’t taste right after that.

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  57. 5 stars
    Looks fantastic – annoying to see just 2 scoops put on a plate, can’t stand seeing that just because it looks fancy / cool. I’d eat that whole plate to myself.

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  59. 5 stars
    like your videos, thank you. Please allow one comment: In this video from 2.40 for a good 1minute you just show the pan from the side rather than what is happening inside, which would be a lot more interessting than just that comments. Otherwise, ….. really good work

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  61. 5 stars
    You need to warn people to have a bib or at least some paper towels ready before watching the video. My saliva glands are peaking off the chart 🌟

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    Reply

  62. I hope that is 1 serving, cause I’m an eater, not a nibbler. You provided me with a new idea. I prob won’t make this but I may use the concept. Thanks

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  65. 5 stars
    Now, this is my new favourite Italian cuisine channel. I’m hungry just from watching it. I’m so happy, here in Czechia, we have some traditional family shops with Italian ingredients. <3

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    Reply

  66. 5 stars
    I learnt that you stir in the past water slowly into the cheese, so it doesn’t raise the temperature too much I don’t ruin the sauce.Bravo👏👏👏

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    Reply

  81. 5 stars
    it was delicious, ty for sharing, you will be alarmed to know I used turkey “bacon” I know, un faux pas, terrible, I used olive oil for fat and sprinkled some chipotle to fake the fake, it was still delicious

    Original comment: View on YouTube

    Reply

  82. 5 stars
    As a Roman I can confirm that the ingredients and procedure are correct. I just want to add a few extra little tricks. Before cooking it, put the guanciale for ten seconds in boiling water, dry it and cook it as the video shows , so it will seal and remain even crunchier on the outside and soft on the inside. Then I leave a few pieces of quanciale for an extra minute, remove them and wait for them to dry, then I chop them into powder which I add during creaming.

    Original comment: View on YouTube

    Reply

  91. 5 stars
    Thank you for the video! Just a personal side note of mine – I prefer cooking the guancale on high heat for short time straight away. Didnt know that the proportion is 1:1:1 pasta:guancale:cheese. Thats definitely tasty!

    Original comment: View on YouTube

    Reply

  92. Yes, its probably tasty, but just some noodles with something that gives taste. Italians allways tend to talk everything so loud and BIIIIIG….. as they do the whole day about everything

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  97. 5 stars
    Where my Balkan ppl at? Who else has his own little twist with this one – instead that pork – I use – Pastrma ❤ looks the same, tastes 🔥

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    Reply

  101. 5 stars
    Anyone here to explain the taste of guancale compared to Bacon / Ham (rather sweet?) or Schwarzwälder Schinken (salty / smokey)? Can´t find this stuff anywhere, might need to order it online 😕

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  110. I live in China and although I have good spirulini, I don’t have that preserved meat. I only have Chinese larou. Let’s see how it comes out.

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  118. You can keep heating it up, you will have to do it if you like the sauce to be extra thick. You just need to be very careful about that and undercook the pasta a little bit too, otherwise it will be too soft. It makes the preparation longer, a little bit harder and requires constant stirring and attention for a couple of minutes which is very tedious, but the results can be really good. The pasta will be considerably hotter, too, eliminating the rush in serving

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  119. 5 stars
    I just subscribed to this channel. As a Swede I have constantly mistreated pasta up until now… I will now learn to cook pasta like a Roman.

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  128. The information about temperature is so useful! I have been constantly frustrated by clumping cheese with cacio e pepe. Now I know why!

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  130. 5 stars
    As a mixed European I can say without a problem that Italian food is exquisite. You Italians are a very special race of culinary experts. Enjoy.

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  136. Oh, wait; 140 ° Fahrenheit don’t equal fourteen but fourty Centigrades. The YT-subtitles are – again – ridicilously false. But all the rest ist wonderful here.

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  142. 5 stars
    It’s a shame guanciale is so hard to find here in America. It’s hard even, to find panchetta in many places. Sometimes I have to settle for bacon, and it overpowers with smokiness.

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  147. 5 stars
    Looks good! 👌🏻 I LOVE Pinot Grigio!! However, it seems like the Guanciale might be a bit burnt, or maybe it’s just the colors on my iPhone making it look that way

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  157. 5 stars
    Made this with pancetta and parm because that was what was available. It was amazing!One key is to boil the pasta in as little water as possible because that makes the water very starchy which is required for the sauce to be very velvety and thick.

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  159. 5 stars
    Anyone in the comments tried being a bit like mad scientist and adding sodium citrate to the pecorino sauce so it doesn’t separate into fats and water?

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  165. 5 stars
    Wow, beautiful to look at, and beautiful to listen to the almost poetic description and explanations! 🙂 I’ll sure try out this recipe. Thank you!

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  166. Underreted?? Why? Every Italian knows this recipie, and every tourist from the rest of the world!! Only americans doesn’t knows anything but their ridiculous stereotipes!!

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  168. Il grasso non si butta e il pecorino va messo sopra grattugiato e non come una pappetta, era il,cibo dei pastori maremmani che non avrebbero mai buttato il grasso che dà sapore

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  170. short pasta? you mean, like, pasta that’s been………. broken? aaaaaaaarrrrggghh!Nice round bottom pan, almost like a wok, looks great for tossing so it gets nice and creamy.

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  171. 5 stars
    “don’t call this carbonara with no egg, don’t call this carbonara with no egg, don’t call this carbonara with no egg”But seriously looks delicious and the presentation is wonderful.

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  189. 5 stars
    The same amounts of sheep cheese, pork cheeks and pasta…can’t go wrong with that. Sounds almost like American pizza – same amounts of dough, cheese and pepperoni 😀

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  191. 5 stars
    Can you please tell us where we can buy that specific padella in N. America that’s used for the preparing the guanciale and the sauce? The padellas in Italy have those specific curved high sides with no edges — perfect for the mantecare at the end.

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  193. 5 stars
    Very well description on why things are cooked a certain way to achieve an excellent authentic traditional regional Italian dish,sei molto bravo ,complimenti ❤❤❤❤❤

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  201. Dear Viewers: Apologies for the brief ‘side view’ angle of the pan that many of you are displeased about. As we’ve explained in several comments, we had a technical malfunction and lost the preferred angle during that part of the video. We have over 100 mouthwatering videos on this channel and I think this is the only one with this egregious error 😉 so we invite you to subscribe to our channel. We are sure you won’t be disappointed 🙂 Thanks for watching and… Buon appetito!

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  202. Thanks for the Video. The side camera angle in the middle of the video is nice, but i prefer to actually see the ingredients going in the pan aswell

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  207. 5 stars
    Mamamia Hahaha…Just like my Mama would have made it…justa a leetle bit different. Using fried pig fat with skin on. Called in South Africa Krastiangs with fat syphoned off. Or Bacon perhaps. And an ultra good Bechamel Sauce…and parmesan cheese….ThankU your dish has really been a labour of love😊😅😂

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  208. 5 stars
    Italians don’t kill me but I don’t eat pork so what other meat can be used instead. Or is the best alternative simply cacio e Pepe?

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  209. 5 stars
    Swiss here. To me, a clumpy, string cheese sauce is perfectly acceptable 🧀 😁But I do take notice of how the standard should look like 👨‍💼

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  210. 5 stars
    I don’t think anybody knows this pasta apart from that particular region, certainly not in the north.There are so many regional dishes and that is what they are: ‘regional’.

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  213. From 2:40 to 4:30 we’re seeing only the side of the cookware, rather than what you are doing inside it. Why not show and tell rather than just tell?

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  214. 5 stars
    *THANK YOU* for pronouncing “Grigio” correctly! If I have to hear one more uneducated monolingual American pronounce it “GREE-jee-oh” I’m going to explode.

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  218. 5 stars
    That’s a lot better than that “carbonara” made with cream they sell in bad European restaurants. I like how you cooked the guanciale slowly. Nice tip.

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  232. Good video.Just a suggestion, please don’t use the camera angle showing absolutely nothing from 2:45 to 3:40 anymore. This kind of angle should just be a transition, not a fixed angle. SHOW the food being cooked.

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  233. As an Italian I can confirm that this pasta is not underrated as it is one of the “four great Roman pasta’s” along with Carbonara, Cacio e pepe and Amatriciana but I can also confirm that your technique and choice/use of ingredients are absolutely perfect.

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  236. 5 stars
    Pancetta is ok but guanciale makes the difference for all Roman staple pasta so it’s worth the effort of looking for it, it’s available in many Italian delis these days

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  237. I am a bit sad. My cheese melted and it didn’t combine with the water. this happens to me with cacio e pepe too. I turned off the heat and I even let it rest for a minute or so. Even when making lazy cacio e pepe where i just grind cheese on a plate and I add pasta and water over it, the cheese still melts half of the time ;(. either the ph of the cheese is off by a lot, or the pasta everything is still too hot.

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  239. 5 stars
    I just tried making this myself – due to convenience, I used Parmesan instead of pecorino and bacon instead of guanciale, but I was satisfied with the results.Good eats.

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  245. 5 stars
    my pecorino doesn’t mix that well, it’s becoming one mass and when I mix it with pasta, it creates mozarella-like chunks, is the reason the cheese quality or am I doing smth wrong, I followed the recipe. I tried two times and both times got the same results

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  251. 5 stars
    Ohh..Woww, so delicious & mouthwatering pasta recipe,thanks for sharing this great great cooking of yours, cheers..n gracias to you!😍🥰😋👍👍👏👏

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