Tonight I continued to experiment with the guanicale I recently got from a friend (and previously wrote about here).
For dinner I made a variation on a recipe for orecchiette with guanciale and broccoli that I found on the Australian website cuisine.com.au.
Orecchiette is an Italian shell-like pasta. My local grocery store didn’t have any in stock, so I decided to just use bow-tie pasta. Other than that, I followed the recipe pretty closely.
This particular dish is actually quite simple and quick to make. In a frying pan, I browned the guanciale in some extra virgin olive oil. Then I added some red pepper chili flakes, sea salt, and minced garlic. In a separate pot I boiled the bow-tie pasta with the broccoli. When the pasta was ready, I drained it and added it to the frying pan with the guanicale for about 2 minutes, just long enough to mix all the flavors together. I grated some Parmiggiano Reggiano over the top, and that’s it! The whole thing took less than 30 minutes, and I even have enough leftover for lunch tomorrow.
Guanciale isn’t readily available at most grocery stores – it’s a specialty meat that you might be able to find at your local butcher. You can also order it over the internet from specialty meat producers like Niman Ranch.