History and curiosities of one of Italy’s most loved, discussed and fought-over typical dishes.
The correct term for this delicious pasta that has been feeding Romans and tourists for generations comes from the town of Amatrice in the province of Rieti, where they invented this type of pasta, which before the introduction of the tomato (which only arrived in Europe after Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America) was in white and was called ‘Gricia’. Amatrice is on the Via Salaria (built by the Romans, and called the ‘salt road’, because through it they went to fetch salt at S.Benedetto del Tronto on the Adriatic), so it has always been connected to Rome, and for this reason its cooks have always moved to Rome, and by moving to the capital they also imported the use of Amatriciana, which was so successful that it was declared ‘Roman‘, as a dish of Roman tradition. There is talk of its recipe in Rome as early as 1700. Although its original name would be Amatriciana, for us Romans who use shortened words, Amatriciana has become Matriciana. As far as its preparation is concerned, there is one thing you cannot go wrong about, the original recipe calls for the use of guanciale (pork cheek).
