You could probably say 'pasta alla gricia' is like the famous 'matriciana' without the tomato sauce. However if you try it, you'll find it a very difficult pasta recipe to get right. The fact that the ingredients are very few, easy to source and the dish is from the home cooking traditions of Lazio, does not mean this is the beans on toast of Roman cuisine. The mix between strong opposing tastes is a real alchimia and very few can say they know how to do it just right.

ingredients

fresh homemade pasta (or spaghetti), guanciale (cured jowl of the pig), black pepper, pecorino cheese, parmesan cheese, olive oil