The best wines to pair with Amatriciana

Pasta all'amatriciana, spaghetti or bucatini according to preference, is a classic dish of traditional Lazio cuisine, especially in the ancient village of Amatrice in the province of Rieti. As with all the dishes of the ancient regional cuisine, the ingredients are few and simple: long pasta, bacon, pecorino romano, tomato sauce, extra virgin olive oil, chilli pepper or pepper. Amatriciana pasta actually derives from an even older recipe, the gricia, which did not include the use of tomatoes, introduced only after the spread of the vegetable in Europe following the discovery of America. Amatriciana is a tasty and savoury dish. The sweet tendency of the pasta is balanced by the acidity of the tomato. The bacon is the fat and oily part, the pecorino romano gives the flavour and the black pepper or chilli pepper gives the spiciness. All in all, it is a dish with intense aromas, a good balance and a medium complexity of flavours between the different ingredients.

The choice of wine to match is not easy. You need a wine with a rather harmonious profile to contrast the spicy and savoury part of the dish, with moderate acidity to suit the characteristics of the pasta and the tomato, and to balance the fat of the bacon. It is not a dish for red wines, which are generally too structured, intense and tannic, and would have the effect of masking the flavour of the amatriciana. Among the white wines, those with a soft, rich profile, good intensity and persistence and not too high acidity are a good match. A Grechetto di Todi, a wine with a soft, persistent fruit and a great balance of flavours, could be a good combination. Rosé wines are particularly suitable with amatriciana pasta, provided they have a good body, a certain aromatic richness and persistence. We will not choose the light, citrus and floral Rosé of the Provence style, but a rosé with more character. We can look to a good Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, made from pure Montepulciano, which, with its pleasant fullness, structure and aromatic intensity, can stand up to comparison with an important sauce such as amatriciana. To stay in the field of rosé wines with a strong personality, we can focus on wines with good body and richness, such as the Salento rosé based on Negroamaro, the Calabrian rosé based on Gaglioppo or the Sicilian rosé based on Nero d'Avola. If you really cannot do without a red wine, choose a light, young, medium-bodied, slightly tannic wine made exclusively in steel, such as a Gamay del Trasimeno, a Frappato di Vittoria, taking care to serve it chilled, at a temperature of around 14 °C.