Wine Me Dine Me

Ingredients
• Good short pasta 

• Sofritto = celery, carrots, onions

• Organic potatoes (about 1 per person)

• Anchovies

• Red Calabrian chili

• Sweet Provola cheese

• Guanciale 

• Bay leaf

• Pecorino Calabrese

• Fresh rosemary

• White or orange wine

• Baroncini Olive Oil

• Parmigiano Reggiano

Ok so good news, this is a one pot recipe. Start out with a generous amount of olive oil in your pot. Take your garlic, crush it, remove the shell, and add to the pot. Chop up the onion as thin as possible, and add them to the pot right away so it can start cooking. Feel free to add 2-3 anchovies at this point that will melt away, they really just add a perfect lil salty heartiness, you won't taste the anchovy.

Chop up your carrots and celery and add them to your pot. Mix it all up as you add more olive oil and a little bit of salt. If you like spicy add some dried calabrian chilies now.

Alright. Time for the guanciale, baby! Take your slice and cut off any excess fat around the edge, then add the piece to the pot. The guanciale adds some gorg flavor, but if you don’t want to use it you can add the rind of parmigiano reggiano instead. A little farmer trick! 

At this point you want your sofritto to be softened, and you can add two bay leaves (remember to remove them later). No need to boil the potatoes first, because this is a soupy recipe it’ll have time to cook. And you don’t want the potato to be too mushy, ya know? So now peel those potatoes of yours! Grab some white or orange wine and add it to your sofrito. Turn up the heat. Mix it all up! At this point take out those whole pieces of garlic from the beginning.

Cut up your potatoes into little cubes. Keep the sofrito pumping but lower the heat after a bit. 

Remove chili peppers. Add the potatoes and keep moving everything. Allow the potatoes to soften up before adding water. The potatoes need some time to cook and soak up all the flavors happening. Once your potatoes are cooked (reference video for visual) we can add the water!

Turn up the heat, we need to get the water to boiling point. Also, take out your guanciale at this point. While that’s heating up you can cut up your cheese, the same size as the potato cubes.

Use a cheese that’s not too strong, for consistency purposes.Once the water is boiling, test the potato, if it’s cooked well enough then it’s time to add the pasta! 

Since this is a soupy recipe we’re not going for al dente with the pasta here. It’ll cook a little longer for a softer bite. Did I mention you can salt lightly as you go?

Keep stirring pasta as it cooks. Once the pasta is fully cooked, turn the heat off.

Time to add the cheese in! We want it to melt so keep stirring it in. When our provola is all melted we can grate a generous amount of parmigiano reggiano on top, add a sprig of fresh rosemary, and drizzle olive oil on top. 

Now let it rest for a few min before serving.