Meditations in an Emergency

Meditations in an Emergency

Share this post

Meditations in an Emergency
Meditations in an Emergency
The Sunday supplement: #39

The Sunday supplement: #39

All things Roman pasta: recipes, ingredients, stories, music, and tools

Rosecrans Baldwin's avatar
Rosecrans Baldwin
Aug 07, 2022
∙ Paid
5

Share this post

Meditations in an Emergency
Meditations in an Emergency
The Sunday supplement: #39
Share
“Fruit Bowl, Book and Newspaper” (1916), Juan Gris

Rome is my favorite city in Europe. I’ve been fortunate to visit multiple times, and I’m on a kick lately trying to make its classic pastas at home – make them well enough to match my memories.

Gricia, amatriciana, carbonara, cacio e pepe. Alla zozzona, or maybe a light primavera, or something with zucchini and peas and mint. Basic ingredients: guanciale or pancetta, Pecorino cheese, chile, olive oil, black pepper, egg or tomato. Pasta shapes like bucatini, rigatoni, tonnarelli. It’s all very simple, very hard, extremely tasty and easy to fuck up.

At this point I’ve got gricia, amatriciana, zozzona, and carbonara pretty well gripped. For cacio e pepe, for whatever reason (ie, my incompetence), I’ve yet to reach the version I ate once in Testaccio, or even versions I’ve had in Los Angeles. (Hey, we have cacio e pepe pizza.) Many times, including the last time, two weeks ago, I wind up with gloppy-not-glossy. It’s all down to chemistry. Take your eye off for a second, it’s bucatini with curds.

For recipes, I used to default to my Phaidon Silver Spoon, “the bible of authentic Italian home cooking,” but these days, who am I kidding? I mean, do I own one of those cutting boards that has a slot for a phone to read recipes while I prep? Sure.

Here are some online takes I like. If you have some you love, please share.

  • J. Kenji López-Alt’s cacio e pepe

  • Sara Jenkins’s gricia

  • Anna Francese Gass’s zazzona for the NYTimes.

  • Almost any carbonara recipe will work. This Serious Eats Roman round-up is good, just make sure to incorporate all the oil from the guanciale/pancetta/bacon, be careful stirring in the egg/cheese if you’re adding it in a hot pan, go heavy on pepper, don’t be stingy using the starchy pasta water (in almost any pasta recipe) to get that creaminess. Also, I like to simmer the fried pork bits in white wine.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Meditations in an Emergency to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Rosecrans Baldwin
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share