Pasta alla gricia is one of the most famous dishes of Lazio cuisine, considered the ancestor of pasta all’amatriciana.
In common with the recipe of the amatriciana in fact there is the use of guanciale and Pecorino Romano. The main difference instead is in the tomato sauce, absent in pasta alla gricia because its origin would be even earlier than the importation of tomatoes into Europe. It is said that pasta alla gricia was invented by the shepherds of Lazio, who, with the few ingredients they had available when they returned from the pastures, prepared such a simple but equally tasty and substantial dish.
