Same I learned all my pasta techniques from those old videos

Real ones know about the cutting board

Yep - Love both channels and couldn't agree more - we can always do better but some people don't have access to everything, so even if it wasn't SUPER perfectly traditional, it was LEGIT!

I’m definitely an honorary Italian because of Steve’s old vids

That and 99% of the country you can't go out and get Guanciale.

He was probably going to mention “anti-caking agents” lol @ 4:17

@@jacobdalton6868 "If you're gonna get that pre-grated. . ." Then Don't. That's how I read that. but also to @Josephc.6431, YES, also this. Even the ones that do it more naturally use potato/tapioca etc. starches. Not great since it's also a thickener and will fuck up your sauce. Grate it yourself fam, trust.

I prefer pancetta but you can get guanciale at Ivarone brothers if that's near you.

@@bakerteacher2905worked at a Italian restaurant in Philadelphia almost 20 years ago and they only had pancetta. I’ve never had it with guanciale cause I ain’t paying that much money for it. Everything doesn’t have to be authentic to be good.

I use the lightly cured pork jowl bacon from our local groceries. May not taste exactly correct, because I suspect they use some sugar in the cure, but only a Roman would know the difference. Another option is to get fresh pork cheeks from a butcher and salt cure them yourself in the fridge. Not hard, just takes some time.

@@timolean5846Absolutely! And didn’t I hear Stephen say (more than once) “this isn’t about authenticity- this is Italian-American!” And authentic Italians were living in a different environment with different ingredients available and they made use of the bounty that was here in America. According to Lydia Bastianich, and she would know, having emigrated to America at the age of 12, meat of all kinds was more available to the newly arrived Italians, who were poor, they were peasants, they only had meat on Sundays (hence the birth of Sunday Gravy, born here in America). Italians made use of pork, one of the least expensive animal proteins world over, and they used the least expensive cuts, like guanciale, which is pork cheek, and almost entirely fat with slim ribbons of muscle meat. Now bc it’s “authentic, people seek it out and are willing to pay up to $39.99 for a hunk? I don’t think “real authentic “ Italians would agree with that - they’d find some other way, maybe American bacon or ham hocks. Why does it have to be authentic? What does that even mean? It’s more “authentic” to abide the philosophy of “use what you have,” and make gastronomic miracles with what you have. 😊 This was poor people’s food, and poor people’s food is the origin of all the best dishes and cuisines all over the world. Now the high end chefs try to re-create it in pricey Michelin star restaurants. Crazy!

You can buy pork back fat or thick cuts of bacon from many regular supermarket delis, which you can cut into the same size and shapes as what Stephen makes w/ guanciale. The only difference is that it is hickory smoked, which I think is an improvement. It’s more flavorful. And many Americans prefer it for the Smokey flavor. I know I do. But then, I’m not Italian.

Yeah but it includes an additional ingredient in sausage that sort of ruins the visuals. Just adding egg to amatriciana apparently doesn’t make it a zozzona; it always includes sausage as well for some reason.

Don't give up hope. I live in Georgia, but very close to the Alabama line, and I've got easy access to guanciale. If you're by chance around the Auburn area, it might be worth a trip.

This 100%. The older videos were my #1 resource when I went the my Roman pasta phase and I'm so glad I found the channel though them.

Skål!

Nobody really eats fresh rigatoni or any other tubular pasta. Americans are fixated on thinking "fresh pasta" is always superior.

@@avonlave I generally prefer quality dried pastas, but there is a place near me that makes Rigatoni and it is quite good.

@@avonlave Dry pasta is also the better choice when you need that starchy pasta water for your disk, like cacio e pepe, carbonara, etc. Fresh pasta cooks too quickly to develop good starch in the pasta water. There are methods around this problem, but why do the extra effort when top quality dry pasta does the job perfectly.

Came on to say the same, hopefully it’s fixed soon. Can’t wait to try this dish

It's working for me, now.

i want this grater too, anyone know where to get one?

@@gohabs9 I haven’t looked yet but when I find it I’ll let you know.

@@mnbsay9548 please let me know as well, please!!

as someone who can't have onion and garlic it's a godsend. although disappointingly in Rome, many restaurants do use onion, which wasn't how it was traditionally made