Authentic Pasta alla Gricia Recipe

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Looking for all the flavor of Spaghetti Carbonara , but without the egg? Pasta alla Gricia is the Roman classic you’re after. Italians in Italy highly approve of the authentic Pasta alla Gricia recipe we share here—with our video earning almost 300,000 views and 6,500 likes and counting!

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 pasta cookbook where you can find this recipe and more!

Watch the Video Recipe!

Learn how to make this Pasta alla Gricia recipe in this video recipe, filmed in Italy:

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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. 

Tips for Making Pasta alla Gricia Like an Italian

Semi-aged cheeses melt a bit easier, resulting in an even creamier sauce. Choose it whenever possible.

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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 182 votes
Print 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

🇬🇧 This is the English-language version of our original Italian recipe on PIATTO Ricette.

257 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 👍👍👍

  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”

  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!

    • 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 🙂

  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.

  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!

  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 ….

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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?

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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

  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

  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

  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

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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 😕

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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.

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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.

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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.

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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.

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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.

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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!

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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😊😅😂

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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’.

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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.

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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.

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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.

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  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

    Original comment: View on YouTube

  254. I loved this recipe! Pasta alla Gricia is such a classic, and your instructions made it so easy to follow. The tips on using quality guanciale and cheese really elevated the dish. Can’t wait to try it out for dinner! Thank you for sharing!

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