You know what's great? Pasta alla gricia.

At its most basic, pasta alla gricia is little more than cured pork, black pepper, Pecorino Romano, pasta, and pasta water. But when those ingredients come together properly—when rendered pork fat, starchy water, and finely grated cheese are tossed into a glossy, unified emulsion—you get something that feels far richer and creamier than such a short ingredient list has any right to produce.

You know what's even better?

Once you understand how the emulsion in pasta alla gricia forms, it stops being a single Roman pasta dish and becomes a technique you can riff on endlessly. Change the fat. Use beans instead of pasta. Change the aromatic direction. Add herbs. Add alliums. Swap the cured meats. Load it with vegetables. As long as you keep the basic architecture, you can take it any direction you want..

To get you started, here are three recipes that use the same basic pasta alla gricia method. One leans earthy and savory with crisped mushrooms and a splash of soy sauce. Another pushes into spring, with sweet asparagus, fresh mint, and chili flakes. The last swaps pasta out entirely for chewy Korean rice cakes paired with garlic, onions, and pork belly.

If you want to dive deeper into the science of pasta sauce emulsions, read my article on pasta alla gricia.

As always, I hope you enjoy these recipe variations and share your experiences with them. But above all, I want to see what you end up creating with this basic technique. If you come up with your own recipe inspired by this technique, feel free to share it using this form!

Test These Recipes Yourself!

Below you'll find links to this month's three recipe variations for you to test at home. Each post includes the link to the relevant feedback survey.

Variation #1: Pasta alla Gricia con Funghi e Shoyu 🔗

Variation #2: Asparagus and Rigatoni alla Gricia 🔗

Variation #3: Tteok alla Gricia 🔗