This is the adult equivalent of buttered noodles, but better
A recipe for pici with guanciale and tomato butter. Oh! and some news.
Psst! If you’ve somehow just stumbled across this and you love what you see, you can subscribe by clicking the link below to receive the Pasta Sunday newsletter in your inbox every other Sunday.
no.17
Pici with Guanciale and Tomato Butter
First things first my lovely pasta people, you may have noticed a slight change in this newsletter’s appearance. Over the past couple of weeks I have been working behind the scenes to migrate all of the Pasta Sunday newsletters of the past to Substack, which is where I will be sending them from going forward.
Since launching Pasta Sunday back in April this year, the one question that I have been asked on a weekly basis is “I didn’t sign up in time, how can I read your newsletter?”, and with my previous set up, archiving each one to be publicly viewable just wasn’t possible.
BUT NOT ANYMORE!
You’ll be able to find all previously published newsletters in the Archives. Plus there are a few more features that make this whole exchange a little more personal - i.e. comments! I love to hear from you.
Anywho, onto the recipe.
After months of watching Thomas Straker turn literally every flavour combination under the sun into a compound butter, I was left with a burning and unrelenting desire to douse a big bowl of pasta in some sort of buttery situation. Then I saw Sophie Wyburd post a very sexy looking spaghetti twirl video with pancetta and a “tomato butter” sauce and I knew what I had to do.
Yes that’s right, I embarked on making my own tomato butter. It was as obvious and inevitable as that lettuce outlasting Liz Truss. Not that I’m complaining - I directly benefited from the consumption of this dish.
So, how does it taste? Well, the sauce is smooth, luscious and buttery, as you probably expected. Sweet undertones of roasted garlic (garlic girlies, I see you!), sharp tomato puree and a pinch of salt - blended with (say it with me) butter until smooth. I’m a simpleton, so sue me. The flavours are bright, they’re giving what they came to give. And when you melt a dollop of it into a big, steaming mound of freshly rolled pici and crispy guanciale? Well, you’ll just have to make this and figure out the answer for yourself :)
Let’s talk pici
Pici hail from Tuscany, specifically Siena and Val di Chiana. A pasta lunga or long pasta, they’re made by combining a mixture of wheat flour, water and oil. Conversely, I have always made pici with semola di grano duro, and when I posted about this the other day, someone commented that they had always made them with tipo 00 flour. Let’s just say this piqued my inner research nerd’s interest.
So I hit the books, and the interwebs to do a bit more digging. While pici are more often than not made with tipo 00, some recipes (subject to location) call for a mixture with semolina, and then a minority call for just semolina flour. Like almost all pasta, there never seems to be one definitive way of doing things.
The main difference between these types of wheat flour comes down to texture. Grano duro is a hard wheat flour, more coarsely ground, and with a slightly higher amount of protein. Tipo 00 on the other hand, is a soft wheat flour, more finely ground and less “chewy” in texture when cooked.
So why do I just use semolina flour? Honestly, since this revelation I’ve been trying to trace back steps to the earliest times that I made this shape, but frankly I have no clue. It’s funny how we develop approaches to cooking that stay with us for so long they become an afterthought. Auto-pilot, if you will. But I’ll admit, I was still stumped, especially when we think about regionalism in pasta, and how the types of ingredients can be so closely linked to the historical economics and local agriculture. Regardless, I really do love making this shape with semolina flour for the texture and bite, so I encourage you to give it a go if you so desire. Otherwise, sub for tipo 00 and stay true to the more traditional recipe, my friends!
Shaping Pici
This is a fantastic beginner’s pasta. Channel your inner child and think back to Playdough days - we start by flattening a portion of the dough, brushing it in olive oil and cutting it into strips.
Each strip is rolled out into long, thick spaghetti - start with your hands in the centre and with a light pressure, roll them outward to lengthen each strand. My personal preference is to roll pici fairly thin, given they will expand slightly when cooked.
Pici with Guanciale and Tomato Butter - serves four
Ingredients
Pici dough
400g durum wheat semolina flour
190ml warm water
10ml extra virgin olive oil
Fine semolina for dusting
Tomato butter sauce
1 head of garlic
1x 250g block of unsalted butter, room temperature
140g tomato puree
200g guanciale, diced
Parmigiano Reggiano, to serve
Method
Pici dough
On a work surface, add the semolina flour and create a well in the centre. Slowly drizzle in the warm water and oil and whisk until you have a custard-like consistency.
Switch to a bench scraper and start to flip the flour from the outer edge over and onto the water mix, using a cutting motion to then mix it in. Continue to do this around all sides until you have a crumbly, sand-like mix.
Start bringing the crumbly dough together with your hands, squeezing and coaxing it in a ball of dough that’s knead-able - scraping up and incorporating as much loose flour from your work surface as possible.
Once you have this shape, begin kneading the dough vigorously for a good 10 minutes until the dough is springy and elastic, and not sticking to your hands at all.
Cover and rest for 60 minutes.
Pici method
Divide the dough into four pieces. Work with one at a time while keeping the other pieces covered so they don't dry out. Using a rolling pin, flatten the piece until it's about 1-2cm thick. Brush each side with olive oil, then cut into strips around 1cm in width.
Using the palms of your hands roll each strip out into a long, round noodle. Start with your hands in the centre then work them outward, stretching the dough into a thick noodle (or spaghettoni). Keep going until your noodle is about 1/2 cm thick. Pici is a rustic shape, and irregularities are the beauty of hand rolled pasta!
Dust the rolled pici in fine semolina, and set aside on a baking sheet lined with a clean tea towel while you continue with the rest of the dough.
Tomato butter
Preheat your oven to 180c (350f, or 160c fan-forced).
Cut the top of the head of garlic off and place on a piece of aluminium foil. Drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of salt, then wrap the alo foil around the garlic to cover.
Place on a baking tray and roast for 40 minutes or until the garlic is soft. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
In a food processor, add the butter, tomato puree, cooled-garlic (squeeze the cloves out with your hands), and 1/2 tsp salt.
Blend until smooth and homogenous.
Finishing touches
Add the diced guanciale to a cold, dry pan and place on a low heat. At the same time, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil for the pici.
Allow the guanciale to gently sizzle away and crisp up - its fat will render and melt. It’s up to you if you’d like to discard some of its fat from the pan at this point.
Once the water is boiling, salt generously. Drop the pici into the water and allow them to cook for around 4-5 minutes - but check them as you go. If using semolina flour bear in mind their texture will be denser and chewier.
Use tongs to pick the pici directly from the pot and drop them in the pan with the guanciale, taking with them some of the pasta water. Turn the heat off, and add a heaped tablespoon or so of the butter mixture per person.
Stir and toss to combine until the butter has melted and turned into a luscious sauce.
Serve with a smattering of grated Parmigiano Reggiano and enjoy.
Suggested Wine Pairing
We are going to need something to work in harmony with the butter - a high acid wine, something crisp. Something that says - I’ll cut through this butter so you can keep eating this dish in abundant quantity.
They say you can judge the acidity of a wine based on its mouth-watering quality after each sip, and that description alone makes me think of a pinot grigio as the perfect contender for this dish. Light-bodied, crisp, zesty, with fruity undertones and some minerality. It’s medium-high acidity levels stop PGs from being too sweet, making a fine partner for this dish. What do you reckon, Dave?
Sunday Soundtrack
For those new here, each week I put together a mini playlist of 10 songs I’ve been vibing - perfect for playing in the background while you roll out delicious pasta!