Guanciale Pasta & Artichokes

I made up this guanciale pasta recipe because I love guanciale and artichokes. I haven’t ever tried any dish like it in Italy but pasta alla gricia is similar.

This recipe has a few more ingredients and they all go very well together so I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did.

About this guanciale pasta recipe

This was a bit of an experiment because I wanted to use up some ingredients I had on hand. That’s kind of what this blog is all about. Unlike my curry blog, I wanted to bring you my family recipes, most of which can be prepared in less than 30 minutes.

The guanciale is cooked in a similar way to how it is cooked in dishes in Italy. Low and slow is the key to success until the fat renders out of it and it becomes deliciously crunchy. Together with the artichoke hearts, I think this is a pasta I will be making many more times.

Ingredients

There really aren’t a lot of ingredients in this guanciale recipe.

• Spaghetti
• guanciale
• Onion
• Garlic
• Artichoke hearts
• Dry white wine
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Grated Parmesan

See recipe card for quantities.

Step by Step Photos

Check out these step by step photos and see how easy it is to make this guanciale pasta.

1. Step 1: Slowly cook the guanciale over a medium heat until you have rendered all the fat and it turns crispy. Then add the chopped onions and fry for a further 5 minutes until soft and translucent.

2. Step 2: While the guanciale and onions are frying cook your pasta in a large pot of salted water. Cook the pasta al dente, about 2 minutes shorter than the instructions say on the packaging.

What Is Guanciale?

If you’re new to guanciale, you’re in for a treat. Guanciale (pronounced gwan-CHAH-leh) is an Italian cured meat made from pork jowl or cheek. It’s fattier than pancetta, has a stronger flavour, and renders into the most delicious, silky fat you could imagine. That fat is the foundation of many classic Roman pasta dishes.

I first came across guanciale on a food trip through Lazio years ago, and honestly, I haven’t looked at bacon the same way since. It’s not smoked like bacon, and it’s not as lean as pancetta. It’s salty, savoury, and utterly indulgent.

You can usually find it at Italian delis or good butchers – and trust me, it’s worth the hunt.

Substitutions

Although I hope you can try this with guanciale, you can substitute other cured meat. The only thing is, you will need to use a bit more oil. As the guanciale renders, you not only get the delicious crispy meat but that silky fat which is really the star of the show.

• Pancheta - You can crisp pancheta up in a pan but it is a lot less fatty than guanciale and you will need to use more oil.
• Bacon - Streaky bacon is a good substitute but like pancheta you will need to add more oil and the flavour will not be the same.
• Vegetarian - Use vegetarian or vegan bacon if that’s your thing. That said, you will not come close to the flavor of guanciale and you might like to try one or our vegetarian pasta recipes instead.

Why You’ll Love This Dish

There’s something magical about the simplicity of this pasta. Four ingredients, one pan for the sauce and another for the pasta. This is a plate of food that feels both rustic and elegant. It’s the kind of dish I love making at the end of a long day – satisfying, quick, and rich without being too heavy.

I think more than anything, I like cooking with simple ingredients that have been used for dishes like this for centuries.

Equipment

A large pot - This is for cooking the pasta. When cooking pasta, you want to cook it in a lot of water. Cramped pasta is sticky pasta. It needs to be able to swim around inside.

A high side frying pan - This is to prepare the simple sauce. It needs to be large enough to toss the cooked pasta around in to coat it with the delicious sauce.

Storage

You can store leftovers, covered in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. To reheat, heat it up in a large pan over a medium heat until heated through.

Although you can freeze it, I don’t recommend doing so with this recipe.

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